Eli Ben-Dahan

Eli Ben-Dahan was born in 1954 in Casablanca

Ben-Dahan was born in Casablanca, Morocco, the eldest of five boys. His family immigrated to Israel in 1956 and settled in Beersheba.

He studied at the Nativ Meir and Mercaz HaRav yeshivas and received rabbinic ordination. He later earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Touro College and a master's degree in public policy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In the IDF he served in the Artillery Corps and reached the rank of major.

He joined the founders of Haspin in the Golan Heights and in 1983 moved to Beit El to manage the office of Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. In 1989 he became director of the rabbinical courts, a post he held for 21 years. He promoted sanctions on husbands who refused a divorce and the entry of female advocates into the courts.

He entered the Knesset in 2013 for the Jewish Home and served as Deputy Minister of Religious Services, then as Deputy Minister of Defense from 2015. Some of his statements drew controversy. In April 2022 he was appointed again to head the rabbinical courts.