Eli Suissa

Eli Suissa was born in 1956 in Casablanca

Eli Suissa was born in 1956 in Casablanca, Morocco, to Yosef and Rachel. His family moved to Israel the same year. His sister Sofia is married to Rabbi David Yosef, son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

He studied at the Bnei Akiva yeshiva Pirchei Aharon in Kiryat Shmuel and was ordained as a rabbi. He joined the IDF in 1975 and served as a military rabbi.

He began in politics as an adviser to Interior Minister Rabbi Yitzhak Haim Peretz, who appointed him head of the Interior Ministry's Jerusalem district in 1987. In June 1996 he became Minister of Internal Affairs under Binyamin Netanyahu without being a Knesset member. He also served briefly as Minister of Religious Affairs in 1996 and again from September 1998.

In 1999 he entered the Knesset on the Shas list and became Minister of National Infrastructure, leaving when Shas quit the government in July 2000. In March 2001 he became Minister of Jerusalem Affairs in Ariel Sharon's government and sat on the security cabinet. A supporter of Aryeh Deri, he was not placed on the Shas list for the 2003 elections and left the Knesset.

He lives in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem and is married to Ahuva. He studies Torah at the Yechave Daat kollel headed by his brother-in-law, Rabbi David Yosef.