Ze'ev Elkin (born 3 April 1971) 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 the New Hope Party. He was previously a member of the

for

Kadima Kadima () was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan in August 2005, and was soon ...

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

and the National Unity Party and served as Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Minister of Housing and Construction, Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Minister of Environmental Protection, Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Water Resources.

Biography

Born Vladimir Borisovich Elkin to a secular Russian-speaking Jewish family in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

in the

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(now part of an independent

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), Elkin became interested in

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

, joined the Bnei Akiva movement, and learned

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

on his own. He studied mathematics and physics at Kharkiv University from 1987 to 1990, earning a BA in mathematics. He founded the Association of Hebrew and Jewish Teachers during his time at university. In 1990, he became the general secretary of the

branch of Bnei Akiva. In December that year he immigrated to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

along with his wife. He studied at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, gaining a BA in history in 1994 and an MA in history in the same year. Later, Elkin was involved in academic Jewish and medieval studies; in particular, he studied the works of

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

. He was also involved in Jewish education in the countries of the former Soviet Union. He also studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in 1995.

Political career

Elkin was elected to the 17th Knesset in 2006 as a member of

and chaired the subcommittee on the absorption of immigrant children and youth. In November 2008 he decided to quit Kadima, as he considered it to have become a left-wing party. He subsequently joined Likud, and won twentieth place on its list for the 2009 elections. He retained his seat as Likud won 27 mandates. In November 2012, he released an election video for his Likud primaries campaign that went viral, earning 250,000 views in only a matter of days. He was subsequently re-elected again in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. He served as Deputy

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

between March 2013 and June 2014, and then became Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Elkin was placed eighth on the Likud list for the

2015 elections Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burundian presidential election 21 July 2015 * 2015-16 Central African gene ...

, and was re-elected when Likud won 30 seats. After the elections, he was appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Strategic Affairs in the new government. Elkin surrendered the Strategic Affairs post after only 11 days, when Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed Gilad Erdan Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs, and Public Diplomacy on 24 May 2015. Elkin demanded the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs portfolio as compensation for losing Strategic Affairs. Netanyahu met his demand, breaking an election promise to the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, who had wanted Netanyahu to retain the portfolio himself. On 30 May 2016, Elkin lost the portfolio of Minister of Immigrant Absorption to Sofa Landver of Yisrael Beiteinu. However, on 1 August 2016, he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection, succeeding Avi Gabbay. He ran for the Jerusalem mayoralty in the 2018 local elections on the "Jerusalem Will Succeed" list. Despite being endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he was eliminated in the first round. He was re-elected to the Knesset in April 2019, September 2019 and March 2020. In May 2020 he was appointed to the newly created posts of Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Water Resources in the new government. Elkin resigned from the government as Minister of Water Resources and Higher Education, left Likud and joined Gideon Sa'ar's party, New Hope, on 23 December 2020. He was placed third on the list for the March 2021 elections and regained his seat in the Knesset as New Hope won six seats. He was subsequently appointed Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Minister of Housing & Construction in the new government. After joining the government, he resigned from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law and was replaced by Meir Yitzhak Halevi. Because of Elkin's fluency in Russian, he for more than a decade has served as an interpreter for both Prime Ministers

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

and Naftali Bennett whenever they have met with Russian president

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

Personal life

Elkin is married, and has five children.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elkin, Ze'ev 1971 births Living people Soviet Jews Jewish Ukrainian politicians Kadima politicians Likud politicians New Hope (Israel) politicians Deputy ministers of Israel Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Members of the 17th Knesset (2006–2009) Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013) 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–) Soviet emigrants to Israel Ministers of environment of Israel Ministers of housing of Israel Israeli Orthodox Jews Government ministers of Israel Jewish Israeli politicians Politicians from Kharkiv Yeshivat Har Etzion alumni