Eliezer Waldman

Eliezer Waldman was born in 1937 in Petah Tikva

Waldman was born in Petah Tikva in 1937, to Rabbi Yoel and Dina Waldman, who had come to the country in 1932. His family moved to the United States when he was three. There he was active in Bnei Akiva.

He studied at Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner and at Yeshiva University, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology and philosophy. He came back to Israel with the Bnei Akiva Hachshara program and studied at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh. He then joined Mercaz HaRav, where he studied under Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and became a friend of Haim Drukman.

He was among the leaders of Jewish settlement in Hebron and a founder of Kiryat Arba. In 1972 he began heading Yeshivat Nir in Kiryat Arba, which he led for years with Rabbi Dov Lior. He later handed the post to his son Noam and served as the yeshiva's president.

Waldman was a founder of Gush Emunim and of the Tehiya party. He was elected to the Knesset in 1984 and again in 1988, and resigned in January 1990. In 1984 he was arrested in the Jewish Underground affair on suspicion of knowing about its acts, denied the claims and was released after about 2 days.

In 1993 he joined the Union of Rabbis for the Land of Israel. Before the disengagement plan he moved for a time with his students to Sa-Nur as a protest. He died in December 2021.