December 25, 2022, 7:21 PM
December 25, 2022, 7:21 PM
Rabbi Haim Drukmanspiritual leader of religious Zionism in Israel, died Sunday night of covid-19 at the age of 90, the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem announced.
Mentor of Deputy Bezalel Smotrichwho will be appointed Finance Minister in the next government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Rabbi Drukman was for decades the most important religious figure of the Zionist religious current, which represents around 12% of the Israeli Jewish population.
“The Jewish people lose one of the spiritual giants of his generation, a righteous man, an educator, a man who dedicated his life to Torah, the Jewish people and the land of Israel,” Smotrich said in a statement.
“The State of Israel has lost a great spiritual leader and I have lost a personal friend whom I held in high esteem,” said Israeli Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu, offering his condolences to the family.
Born in Poland in 1932, Drukman escaped deportation during World War II and migrated to British-mandated Palestine in 1944.
He was a student of Rabbi Tzvi Yehouda Kook, spiritual leader of the movement that founded the settlements in the occupied West Bank after the 1967 war and is considered one of his successors.
He entered politics in 1977 and held a seat as a Knesset deputy for 14 years. In 1993, she survived his vehicle being shot at by a Palestinian, in which his driver was killed.
Drukman received the prestigious Israel Prize in 2012. for his contribution to Israeli society.
