Michal Cotler-Wunsh, 54, was born in Jerusalem and moved to Montreal with her mother and stepfather, former Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, when she was a child. Cotler-Wunsh described her household growing up as “very pluralistic, universalist, humanistic, Zionist and based on Jewish values.”

After finishing high school, Cotler-Wunsh moved to Israel and spent a year at Hebrew University, and then joined the Israeli military, serving as an officer that trained recruits. She was discharged from service in 1991, and then went back and forth between Israel and Canada, obtaining law degrees from Hebrew University and McGill University. Cotler-Wunsh would go on to enter the Knesset in June 2020, replacing a member that had resigned.

In 2023, Cotler-Wunsh began serving as Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, a position her stepfather had held in Canada.