Leonid Nevzlin

Leonid Borisovich Nevzlin, born in Moscow, is an Israeli-Russian businessman, investor and philanthropist. He held senior positions at Menatep Bank and Yukos, became an influential participant in Russia’s emerging market economy and public life, and later devoted substantial resources to Jewish education, research, culture and communal institutions in Israel and abroad. His most enduring contribution lies in building institutions that connect the history of Russian and Eastern European Jewry with contemporary Jewish life and the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora.

From software engineer to a leading figure in Russian business

Nevzlin was born in Moscow on September 21, 1959, into a Jewish family of Lithuanian origin. He studied software engineering at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas and began his career as a software engineer at an external-trade organization connected with the Soviet Ministry of Geology. In 1987, he met Mikhail Khodorkovsky and joined the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth, one of the new entrepreneurial initiatives emerging during the final years of the Soviet system.

In the following years, Nevzlin helped build Menatep Bank, one of Russia’s first private banks. He served as its president from 1989 to 1991 and subsequently held senior positions at the bank and within the Menatep Group, working in management, government relations, corporate communications and human resources. In 1996 he became vice president of Yukos Oil Company after Menatep acquired control of the company. His positions placed him at the center of the privatization process and the development of Russia’s private business sector during the 1990s.

His activities also extended into public life. Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky supported Boris Yeltsin’s successful 1996 reelection campaign, and from 1999 to 2003 the group supported Russia’s democratic parties Yabloko and SPS. From 1997 to 1998, Nevzlin served as first deputy director general of the ITAR-TASS news agency, where he developed a plan for its gradual transformation into a joint-stock company.

Jewish leadership, academia and public service

In 2001, Nevzlin became president of the Russian Jewish Congress. During this period he supported Jewish historical and heritage research and helped advance institutions including the Moscow Jewish Cultural Center and the International Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewish Studies. He also supported Jewish educational programs developed with organizations such as World ORT, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Later that year, he was elected to Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, where he served as deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In 2003 he became rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The range of these positions—from business and media to parliament and higher education—reflects the breadth of his involvement in Russia’s rapidly changing civic and institutional landscape.

Nevzlin moved to Israel with his family in 2003. He subsequently became a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin’s government while directing much of his energy and philanthropy toward the development of Jewish institutions in Israel and around the world.

The NADAV Foundation and strengthening Jewish peoplehood

In 2004, Nevzlin established the NADAV Foundation. The foundation supports Jewish studies, Jewish education, research into Jewish history, Israel-Diaspora relations and initiatives that strengthen a sense of belonging among young Jews in Israel and in communities worldwide. Its work links the preservation of historical memory with the practical needs of Jewish life in the present.

One of the foundation’s major initiatives is the NADAV Peoplehood Prize, awarded to figures including Elie Wiesel and Aharon Barak. The prize reflects a broad understanding of Jewish leadership: lasting influence is measured not only by personal achievement, but also by the ability to deepen knowledge, responsibility and solidarity among Jewish communities.

Nevzlin established the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The center provides an academic framework for studying the communities, ideas, institutions and historical processes that shaped a region that was for centuries a major center of Jewish life. Its significance is both scholarly and communal: it preserves historical knowledge while helping Israeli society understand the origins and experiences of Jews from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Beit Hatfutsot, Jewish education and institutional renewal

Nevzlin served as chairman of the board of trustees of Beit Hatfutsot, now the Museum of the Jewish People. In 2004, working with the Israeli government, he helped establish a relief fund to revive and strengthen the institution. Under this renewed institutional direction, the museum developed its role as a place where the Jewish story is presented through families, communities, creativity, belief, migration and renewal.

In 2006, the NADAV Foundation launched the International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beit Hatfutsot. The school was designed to give educators, students and visitors tools for understanding the Jewish people not merely as a subject of history, but as a living network of communities, memories, relationships and mutual responsibility. In 2010, the Nevzlin Center for Jewish Peoplehood was established at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, now Reichman University.

Nevzlin has served on the boards of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University and has participated in the leadership of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute. These roles extended his impact beyond philanthropy. They connected research, education, culture and communal organizations with practical questions about the future of the Jewish people.

Media, ideas and public debate

In 2011, Nevzlin acquired a 20 percent stake in Haaretz. In 2014, he founded the Hebrew-language magazine Liberal, whose first issue appeared in May of that year. Inspired in part by international publications such as The Atlantic, The New Yorker and The Economist, the magazine addresses Israeli politics, communications and culture. Through this investment, Nevzlin sought to contribute to a public sphere shaped by analysis, ideas and informed debate.

Nevzlin is the author of Man with a Ruble, written with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Public Relations—Who Needs It? His book Choosing the Minority was published in 2024. These works examine market economics, communications and the role of public relations in modern society.

Continuing public and philanthropic involvement

Nevzlin lives in Israel and remains associated with support for Jewish institutions, education and research. He has also been a long-term supporter of Ezra LeMarpeh, an organization that assists patients and their families. His career demonstrates how private resources can become long-term infrastructure for institutions, knowledge and relationships among communities when they are guided by a sustained public vision.

Why Leonid Nevzlin’s legacy belongs in Moreshet

Leonid Nevzlin merits inclusion in Moreshet because his work reaches several defining points in modern Jewish life: the renewal of Jewish institutions in Russia, the development of research and education in Israel, the strengthening of Jewish identity and the relationship between Israel and world Jewry. The NADAV Foundation, the research center for Russian and Eastern European Jewry, the International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies and the Nevzlin Center for Jewish Peoplehood created durable platforms that continue to serve students, scholars, educators and communities.

His significance lies not only in the scale of his giving, but also in the areas he chose to support: historical memory, education, research, culture, communal responsibility and dialogue between Israel and the Diaspora. For Moreshet, his story is one of a person who transformed business and public experience into an institutional legacy that deepens understanding of the past and helps shape the future of the Jewish people. Moreshet.com preserves this story as part of the broader record of people who built bridges among communities and left a lasting mark on Jewish and Israeli life.