Anat Hoffman

Anat Hoffman
Born	Anat Weiss 1954 (age 62–63) Jerusalem
Residence	Jerusalem
Education	UCLA in Los Angeles (BA in Psychology, 1980)
Alma mater	UCLA
Occupation	Executive Director, Israel Religious Action Center
Known for	Social activism

Anat Hoffman (Hebrew: ענת הופמן‎‎; born 1954) is an Israeli activist and serves as Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center, also known as IRAC. She is the director and founding member of Neshot HaKotel, also known as Women of the Wall. Hoffman is a former member of the Jerusalem City Council. In 2013, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz named her "Person of the Year", noting the award reflected "the prominence that she has achieved across the Jewish world over the past 12 months". The Jerusalem Post listed her fifth, among its list of 50 Most Influential Jews, for forcefully and successfully bringing the issue of women's rights at the Kotel to the "forefront of the consciousness of world Jewry".

Hoffman is a Sabra born on a kibbutz near Jerusalem in 1954. Her mother, Varda Blechman, was the first child born at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel (Hebrew: רָמַת רָחֵל, lit. Rachel's Heights). Her American-born father, Charles Weiss, served as a Voice of America correspondent in Israel. She attended the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. She also excelled as a competitive athlete, becoming a champion swimmer. She competed in the Maccabiah Games, winning titles in nine events.

In 1974, after she completed her service in the Israel Defense Forces, she and her husband at the time, Michael, left for the United States to study. She graduated from UCLA in 1980 with a B.A. in Psychology. While at UCLA, she was connected to Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and started the Israeli Student Organization. She was exposed to Reform Judaism and realized for the first time that Judaism was not limited to Orthodoxy.

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