Eli Yishai

Eli Yishai was born in 1962 in Jerusalem

Yishai was born in Jerusalem in 1962 to Zion and Yvette-Fortuna Yishai, who had immigrated from Tunisia. He studied at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem and at Yeshivat HaNegev in Netivot.

He served in the IDF from 1980 to 1983. Afterward he trained in metalwork and worked in a garage as a welder and metalworker.

He entered politics in 1984 and sat on the Jerusalem City Council from 1987 to 1988. He then worked as an aide to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and later became general secretary of Shas. In 1996 he was elected to the Knesset and became Minister of Labor and Social Welfare.

After Deri was convicted, Yishai became head of Shas. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister under Ariel Sharon, as Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor under Ehud Olmert, and again as Interior Minister from 2009. The State Comptroller found that he bore special responsibility for failures in the fire services after the 2010 Carmel fire.

In 2013 Ovadia Yosef named Deri party leader in place of Yishai. In December 2014 Yishai left Shas and founded the Yachad party, which ran with Otzma Yehudit in 2015 but did not pass the electoral threshold.