Matthew Weinstein is a graduate of Beth Tfiloh Day School and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, with a BA from Amherst College and MPP from Georgetown University. He has spent about four years of his life in Israel on a dozen separate visits. He is a longtime activist with J Street and other progressive Zionist organizations and in 2025 stood as a candidate on the HaTikvah slate for the World Zionist Congress. He divides his time between Baltimore, Salt Lake City, and, in a good year, Tel Aviv.