Rabbi Yoav Ben-Tzur (; born 11 June 1958) is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

for

Shas Shas () is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi religious List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardic Jews, Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until ...

and as a Minister in the Ministry of Labor. Ben-Tzur previously served as the acting Minister of Health between January and April 2023.

Biography

Born in Kfar Saba, Ben-Tzur attended school in Netanya, and the Or Yisrael

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

. During his

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

in the IDF, he served in the Soldier Teachers unit. He later became a reserve captain in the Nahal Brigade. Between 1985 and 1992, he worked at the Or Hadash middle

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

. In 1993, he became Immigration Co-Ordinator in the Northern District for the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The following year, he took up the position of Deputy Director General of the National Centre for the Development of Holy Places, where he worked between 1994 and 1997. He then became CEO of HaMeshakem in 1998, serving until 2008. In 2001, he became chairman of the Jerusalem Religious Council, a position he held until the following year. He later worked as director-general of Shas' Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani school system from 2007 until 2013. A member of Shas, Ben-Tzur was placed twelfth on the Shas list for the 2013 Knesset elections, but failed to win a seat, as Shas won eleven seats. However, he entered the Knesset on 22 June 2014 as a replacement for Ariel Atias,Replacements
Knesset website who resigned in order to take a break from politics. He was re-elected in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, April 2019,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. In May 2020 he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Development of the Periphery, Negev, and Galilee and Deputy Minister of the Interior. He subsequently resigned from the Knesset and was replaced by Yosef Taieb. He was re-elected to the Knesset in the March 2021 elections. Ben-Tzur has a master's degree in Business and Public Administration from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He is married with seven children, and lives in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Tzur, Yoav 1958 births Living people Alumni of the University of Manchester Deputy ministers of Israel Israeli chief executives Israeli educational theorists Israeli Orthodox rabbis Members of the 19th Knesset (2013–2015) Members of the 20th Knesset (2015–2019) Members of the 21st Knesset (2019) Members of the 22nd Knesset (2019–2020) Members of the 23rd Knesset (2020–2021) Members of the 24th Knesset (2021–2022) Members of the 25th Knesset (2022–) People from Kfar Saba Rabbinic members of the Knesset Shas politicians