1. Rafael "Rafi" Peretz is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and former politician.
13 Facts About Rafi Peretz
1. 2.
Rafi Peretz was born in Jerusalem, to parents of Moroccan-Jewish descent.
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Rafi Peretz grew up in the Kiryat HaYovel neighborhood of Western Jerusalem.
4.
Rafi Peretz studied at Mercaz HaRav, and then Yeshivat HaKotel; he received semikhah from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
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Rafi Peretz succeeded Rabbi Avichai Rontzki as Chief Military Rabbi in mid-2010, serving in the post until 2016.
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In November 2014, at a tense time in Jerusalem, Rafi Peretz caused a public controversy by announcing that the Temple Mount has no religious significance to the Muslim religion.
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Rafi Peretz was elected to lead the Jewish Home party on 4 February 2019.
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Rafi Peretz was elected to the Knesset as the coalition won five seats.
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In 2019, Rafi Peretz was appointed the interim Minister of Education.
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In May 2019, Rafi Peretz compared Jewish intermarriage in the United States to a "second Holocaust".
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Rafi Peretz attracted further criticism from within the government and Israeli society in July 2019, when he endorsed gay conversion therapy, and claimed to have personally performed such therapy.
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On July 18,2019, Rafi Peretz said, after protests, that he rejected gay conversion therapy.
13.
Rafi Peretz lived in the Gush Katif settlement of Bnei Atzmon prior to the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005, and now lives in Naveh, a village established in 2008 by former residents of Gush Katif.