Yair Lapid
Politician
Founder of Israel's Yesh Atid Party who became the Prime Minister of Finance of his country in 2013. That same year the Jerusalem Post names him the most influential Jew in the world.
He was a reporter for the Israeli Defense Force's weekly magazine Ba-Mahaneh ('In the Camp'), and in 1994 came to host one of the country's most-watched TV talk shows.
He spoke out in favor of negotiating a land settlement between Israel and Palestine and was not afraid to criticize the Israel's ultra-orthodox religious Jews.
He married journalist Lihi Lapid; the couple had three children.
He came to power around the same time the leader of neighboring Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, rose to the presidency during the Arab Spring.