Public lifeבנצי גופשטיין‎

Ben-Zion Gopstein

Ben-Zion Gopstein is an Israeli far-right activist, a student of Meir Kahane and the founder of the anti-assimilation group Lehava.

born 1969Founding and leading LehavaActivism in Kahane's Kach movementCampaigning against Jewish intermarriage

Born: 10 September 1969, Bnei Brak
Occupation: activist, political activist
Party: Kach, Jewish Power
Education: Yeshivat Or Etzion, Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea
Founded: Lehava (2009)

Ben-Zion Gopstein was born in 1969 in Bnei Brak

Gopstein was born on 10 September 1969 in Bnei Brak and grew up in the Pardes Katz neighborhood. He studied at the Kfar Ganim high school yeshiva and then at the Or Etzion hesder yeshiva.

As a young man he was a student of Rabbi Meir Kahane and an activist in the Kach movement. In 1994 he was placed in administrative detention over his ties to the banned group. He was not drafted into the IDF, and he says the army refused him because of his past in Kach.

In 2002 he began working to prevent marriages between Jewish women and non-Jewish men. He helped found the Hemla nonprofit and in 2009 founded Lehava. In 2014 he left Hemla after a regulator's report criticized its links with Lehava.

From 2010 to 2013 he served on the Kiryat Arba council. He was arrested for incitement in 2014, and in November 2019 he was indicted for incitement to terrorism, violence and racism. In April 2024 the U.S. Department of State and the European Union placed sanctions on him.