Born in
Monterrey,
Mexico in 1945, he studied his BA in Economics at the
University of Nuevo León, and participated in the leftist student movements of the 1960s. Temkin
emigrated to Israel in 1971. He was awarded an MA by the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD by
Columbia University, and published several papers on political science. He began his political activism with left-wing groups at the Hebrew University, and was involved with
Moked and the
Left Camp of Israel, before joining
Ratz. He chaired its council between 1985 and 1989. From 1989 until 1992 he was the Ratz party's Secretary General, and in
1992 was elected to the Knesset on the Meretz list (then an alliance of Ratz,
Mapam and
Shinui). He chaired the Subcommittee on Distressed Youth and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Violence Among Youth, before losing his seat in the
1996 elections. From 1996 to 1999 he was Secretary General of the Meretz party. After failing to be re-elected in
1999, he returned to Mexico to work as an academic. He was due to replace
Amnon Rubinstein after he resigned from the Knesset in 2002, but turned it down, with
Uzi Even taking the place instead. At present, Temkin is a professor and researcher at the
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Mexico. He was the Editor of the journal Perfiles Latinoamericanos and is the Director of a Masters Program in Environmental and Energy Policy and Management at FLACSO-Mexico ==References==