Yitzhak Rafael

MKs


Date of birth = Birth date|1914|7|5|df=yes
Place of birth = Sabov, Galicia
Year of Aliyah = 1935
Date of death = Death date and age|1999|8|3|1914|7|5|df=yes
Place of death =
Knesset(s) = 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th
Party = National Religious Party
Former parties = Hapoel HaMizrachi
Gov't roles = Minister of Religions|

Dr Yitzhak Rafael ( _he. יצחק רפאל, born 5 July 1914, died 3 August 1999) was an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Religions in the mid-1970s.

Biography

Born in Sabov in Galicia in 1914, Rafael attended high school in Poland. During his youth he was a member of the Torah and Work youth movement, and founded a local branch of the Bnei Akiva youth movement.

He made aliyah to Mandate Palestine in 1935 and worked as a teacher in Jerusalem. He attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining an MA in Humanities. He went on to study at the New York Theological Seminary, where he was awarded a doctorate in literature.

He worked for the Jewish Agency and was director of the department of Craftsman and Small Business. Between 1940 and 1947 he edited a small journal. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/1999/aug/09/guardianobituaries1 Yitzhak Rafael: Politician who welcomed immigrants to Israel] The Guardian, 9 August 1999] He was a member of the Hagana and represented Hapoel HaMizrachi in the National Assembly in 1944. Between 1948 and 1953 he was a member of the Jewish Agency's board, and headed its aliyah department, where he was responsible for the large influx of Jewish refugees (numbering over 685,000 between 1948 and 1951), rejecting calls to put a limit on numbers.

In 1951 he was elected to the Knesset on the Hapoel HaMizrachi list. He was re-elected in 1955, 1959 (by which time Hapoel HaMizrachi had merged into the National Religious Party) and 1961. In November 1961 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Health, serving until David Ben-Gurion resigned as Prime Minister in June 1963. He was re-appointed to the post in July 1963, serving until March 1965.

He was re-elected in 1965 and 1969, and following Haim-Moshe Shapira's death in July 1970, became the leader of the NRP. He was re-elected again in 1973, and was appointed Minister of Religions by Golda Meir in March 1974. However, when Yitzhak Rabin formed a new government in June 1974 following Meir's resignation, the NRP were not included in the coalition and Rafael left the cabinet. When the party joined the coalition in October that year, Rafael was re-appointed Minister of Religions, serving until all NRP ministers were sacked in December 1976 for abstaining in a motion of no confidence vote. In the same year he lost the party leadership when Zevulun Hammer and Yosef Burg combined forces to oust him. He lost his seat in the 1977 elections and retired from politics.

In 1979 he was awarded the Bialik Prize for his knowledge of Judaism.

References

External links