Zev Yaroslavsky

Zev Yaroslavsky
Yaroslavsky in 2009
Member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from District 3
In office December 1, 1994 – December 1, 2014
Preceded by	Edmund D. Edelman
Succeeded by	Sheila Kuehl
Member of the Los Angeles City Council from District 5
In office 1975–1994
Personal details
Born	(1948-12-21) December 21, 1948 (age 68) Los Angeles, California
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Barbara Yaroslavsky
Children	2
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Religion	Jewish
Website	Archived

Zev Yaroslavsky is a politician from Los Angeles County, California. He was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from District 3, which includes the San Fernando Valley, the Westside of Los Angeles and coastal areas between Venice and the Ventura County line. He was first elected to the board in 1994.

Yaroslavsky served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 to 1994. He was active in the areas of transportation, the environment, health care and cultural affairs.

Zev Yaroslavsky, the son of David and Minna Yaroslavsky, was born on December 21, 1948, in Los Angeles. He and his older sister, Shimona (married name: Kushner), were the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia and grew up in a Zionist household in Boyle Heights. His father was a founder of the Hebrew Teachers Union in Los Angeles, and both parents, who were born in Ukraine, were founders of North American Habonim, a Labor Zionist youth movement. Yaroslavsky recalled that his parents spoke to their children only in Hebrew to prepare them for emigrating to Israel. They took their children to that country when Shimona was thirteen and Zev was five. Shimona later emigrated permanently.

Yaroslavsky is married to the former Barbara Edelston, whom he met as a student at UCLA. In 1985, when Yaroslavsky was a City Council member, a newspaper reporter described their home in the Fairfax District as "a drab yellow structure with peeling paint and a dirt-patched front lawn." The reporter noted that Yaroslavsky was known for frugality in his public and private life, spending much of his spare time following world events in newspapers and on television. Barbara Yaroslavsky was first appointed to the Medical Board of California in 2003 and has subsequently served multiple terms as its President. The couple has two children.