13 Facts About Yehuda Amital

Yehuda Amital was an Orthodox rabbi, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, and a member of the Israeli cabinet, associated with the Israeli Left.

Yehuda Amital was sent to a labor camp, thus surviving the Holocaust.

Yehuda Amital remained in the labor camp for eight months, and was liberated on October 4,1944, by the Soviet Army.

Yehuda Amital learned with Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, a student of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook.

Yehuda Amital took part in battles of Latrun and the western Galilee.

Yehuda Amital died on July 9,2010, and was laid to rest in the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, where thousands attended his funeral.

In 1988, Yehuda Amital founded the left-leaning religious Meimad movement, and was elected as its chairman after it became a political party.

In 1971 Yehuda Amital asked Aharon Lichtenstein to join him as Rosh Yeshiva.

At the age of 80, Yehuda Amital asked the management of Yeshivat Har Etzion to select his successors.

On September 25,2008, Yehuda Amital announced that on the last day of Tishrei, 5769 he would retire and Mosheh Lichtenstein, the son of Aharon Lichtenstein, would become the fourth Rosh Yeshiva.

Rav Yehuda Amital went on to establish Yeshivat Har Etzion, a flagship religious-Zionist institution, in Alon Shevut, and later co-founded the dovish religious-Zionist Meimad party.

When Rav Shach passed away, Rav Yehuda Amital told the following story.

Yehuda Amital said that a ba'al teshuva once came to Rav Shach.