David Saranga (Hebrew: דוד סרנגה) (born February 18, 1964) is an Israeli diplomat and former Consul for Media and Public Affairs of Israel in the United States. 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." 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. Saranga was the first diplomat who implemented Web 2.0 governmental initiatives, including the first official blog of a country, a MySpace page, YouTube channel, Facebook page and a political blog.
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 its war with Hamas.
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.
Saranga has also served as the First Secretary for Media and Public Affairs at the Israel Embassy in Spain and as deputy ambassador at the Israel Embassy in Romania. He prepared for public service in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he studied Diplomacy and Political Economy. Saranga earned his B.A. degree from the Hebrew University Department of Social Sciences (1990), and he received his MBA degree from the Hebrew University Business School in 1993.
The Israel-Gaza war, by the numbers, New York Daily News, Published January 9, 2009.
Promoting Israel in a Downturn, The Jewish Week, Published December 17, 2008.
‘Dance,’ he told him, ‘dance’, Ynet News, Published September 22, 2008.
Understanding Israel’s Painful Decision, The Jewish Week, Published July 9, 2008.
El plan saudí y la seguridad de Israel, Embajada de Israel, March 2002.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
