Abraham Verdiger

Abraham Verdiger was born in 1921 in Łódź

Verdiger was born in Łódź, Poland, in 1921. His father, Yaakov Verdiger, descended from Rabbi Avraham of Ciechanów, founder of the Strykov Hasidic dynasty, and published several of his books.

He studied at a yeshiva and was active in the Poalei Agudat Yisrael movement in Poland, France and Israel. He immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1947 and served in the IDF.

He entered the Knesset in December 1967 in place of Yaakov Katz, who had died, and served until 1977. In 1984 he founded Morasha with Rabbi Haim Drukman and later returned to Agudat Yisrael. In 1990 he became Deputy Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, a post created for him, and he chaired the Knesset Ethics Committee.

In 1990 he refused to back Shimon Peres's attempt to form a narrow government. Under pressure he wrote a resignation letter, but withdrew it at the request of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rabbi Elazar Shach, and supported Yitzhak Shamir's new government.

He returned to the Knesset in 1994 in rotation with Menachem Porush and left it in 1996. He also served as general secretary and chairman of Poalei Agudat Yisrael and chaired the board of Bank Poalei Agudat Yisrael. He died in 2013 and was buried in Sanhedria Cemetery in Jerusalem.