David Saranga

David Saranga
דוד סרנגה
David Saranga at a breakfast honoring Israeli writer Amos Oz in New York City (September 2008).
Born (1964-02-18) February 18, 1964 (age 60)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Education
  • Hebrew University of Jerusalem, B.A. in Social Sciences (1990)
  • Hebrew University Business School, MBA (1993)
OccupationDiplomat

David Saranga (Hebrew: דוד סרנגה) (born February 18, 1964) is an Israeli diplomat, Israel's former ambassador in Romania. He served as the Senior Foreign Affairs Advisor to the President of the State of Israel, Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin, and former Head of European Parliament Liaison Department at the Israeli embassy in Brussels. Prior to that he served as Consul for Media and Public Affairs of Israel in the United States.[1] Saranga was responsible for Israel's image in the United States and was the liaison person of Israel to the American media. The Jewish Chronicle described him as "The man whose campaigns are rebranding Israel."[2] Saranga's initiative to invite Maxim magazine to Israel generated debate about the definition of public diplomacy. Prof. John H. Brown of Georgetown University described this initiative as the first event in a new branch of Public Diplomacy.[3] Saranga was the first diplomat who implemented Web 2.0 governmental initiatives, including the first official blog of a country,[4] a MySpace page,[5] YouTube channel, Facebook page[6] and a political blog.[7]

Saranga fielded questions on behalf of Israel in what was the first government worldwide press conference via Twitter to take questions from the public about the December 2008 war with Hamas.[8][9]

In March 2008, former Time Out Tel Aviv editor David Kaufman wrote a feature story about Israel's branding project, where he profiled the wide range of initiatives Saranga launched during his tenure in New York.[10]

  1. ^ Leventher, Uri, "The diplomat who tweeted", Globes, October 14, 2009.
  2. ^ Meet David Saranga, the man whose campaigns are rebranding Israel, David Russell, The Jewish Chronicle, May 22, 2008
  3. ^ Public Diplomacy Goes 'Pubic' Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine, John H. Brown, University of Southern California public diplomacy site, July 11, 2007.
  4. ^ Israel Video Blog aims to show the world 'the beautiful face of real Israel', Ynet, February 24, 2008.
  5. ^ Israel seeks friends through MySpace page, Bobby Johnson, The Guardian, March 23, 2007.
  6. ^ Israel's New York Consulate launches Facebook page, Ynet, December 14, 2007.
  7. ^ Latest PR venture of Israel's diplomatic mission in New York attracts large Arab audience, Ynet, June 21, 2007.
  8. ^ Battlefront Twitter Archived November 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, HAVIV RETTIG GUR, The Jerusalem Post, December 30, 2008.
  9. ^ Israeli Consulate to hold public press conference via Twitter Archived 2008-12-30 at the Wayback Machine, Daniel Sieradski, JTA, December 29, 2008.
  10. ^ Best Face Forward, By David Kaufman, AdWeek, Published March 17, 2008.