1. Yechiel "Michael" Leiter is an American-born Israeli historian of philosophy, public policy analyst, rabbi and settlement activist.
18 Facts About Yechiel Leiter
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Yechiel Leiter is a resident scholar at the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem.
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Yechiel Leiter previously served as chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli Ministry of Finance and as political assistant to Ariel Sharon in the Israeli parliament.
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An ordained rabbi, Leiter has written three books and numerous essays on the politics of the Middle East.
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Yechiel Leiter was born on 1 October 1959 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
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The newspaper Haaretz claimed that as a youth, Yechiel Leiter was active in the far-right Jewish Defense League led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, and emigrated to Israel together with other activists from that organization.
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Yechiel Leiter arrived in Israel in 1978 at the age of eighteen, served as a combat medic in the Israeli Defense Forces and participated in the 1982 Lebanon War.
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Yechiel Leiter holds an undergraduate degree in law, a Bachelor of Arts in political science, a Master of Arts in international relations, and a PhD in political philosophy from the University of Haifa.
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Yechiel Leiter studied Judaism over the course of eight years and subsequently taught Judaism at a number of centers for higher learning in Jerusalem.
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Yechiel Leiter served as a political advisor to Knesset member Ariel Sharon and in multiple senior government positions: first as deputy director general of the Israeli Ministry of Education, where he helped plan a major overhaul of the educational system, and then as chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu in the Ministry of Finance, where he took an active role in economic reforms.
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Yechiel Leiter subsequently became a senior policy analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he directed and edited a geopolitical blog.
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In 2008, Yechiel Leiter ran as a candidate for election to the Knesset in the Likud Party's primaries.
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Yechiel Leiter has served as the chief executive officer of 3H Global, an international consultancy group specializing in aiding governments to formulate and implement policy.
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Yechiel Leiter taught political philosophy in the law faculty at the Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono.
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Yechiel Leiter is strategic advisor to the Foundation for the Archaeological Exploration, Restoration and Expansion of Ancient Shiloh.
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Yechiel Leiter has served as a member of the board of governors of the University of Judea and Samaria in Ariel and as a director on the National Committee for the Perpetuation of the Memory of Theodor Herzl.
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Yechiel Leiter serves on the board of directors of The Israel Experience, a subsidiary of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which manages the "Taglit-Birthright" program in Israel.
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Yechiel Leiter has authored three books and dozens of articles on Zionism and Israeli politics and has lectured extensively to audiences throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia, South Africa, and South America.