After running a so-far successful campaign to keep the status quo at the Western Wall and leading American Aguda’s Vaad Hatzalah’s Israeli operation of helping to settle Ukrainian refugees, she is now venturing into the political arena by standing for the Knesset for a new party, which was formed days ago.

The 30/40 party, running in the coming election, was formed by Russian-born MK Stella Weinstein, formerly of Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party.

But, despite the intricacies of Israeli politics, Leah believes that 30/40 can be an effective instrument for social change which can benefit the whole of Israeli society.

Leah’s path to politics began strangely enough when she used to take groups of Israeli women to visit chassidic graves in Ukraine.

The Moscow-born mother of seven and grandmother of two, who started to become religious when, just before she left the Soviet Union for America in 1989, aged 12, she came across a chumash and siddur, told me: “I learned chassidut and tried to apply it to my life.

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