Isaac Goldknopf

Isaac Goldknopf was born in 1950 in Jerusalem

Goldknopf was born in Jerusalem on 30 October 1950 to Malka and Yehuda Aryeh, a composer and conductor in the Ger Hasidic community. He studied in Ger institutions in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. He married in 1972 and is the father of 10 children.

From 1974 he worked as an educational director in Talmud Torah schools in Jerusalem. In 1982 he initiated an umbrella body for about 170 Talmud Torah schools. After his father died in December 1988, he took over the Beit Yaakov kindergarten and daycare network, and in 1990 he opened Beit Petachia, a special education association.

As secretary of the rabbinical committee for Sabbath observance, he led campaigns against El Al in 2006 and other companies. In 2003 he was elected to the Jerusalem City Council. In June 2022 the Ger rebbe chose him to replace Yaakov Litzman as leader of Agudat Yisrael.

He was elected to the 25th Knesset and appointed Minister of Housing and Construction on 29 December 2022, leaving the Knesset under the Norwegian Law. He served through the Swords of Iron war. On 12 June 2025 he resigned from the government over the failure to advance a bill on Haredi draft exemptions and returned to the Knesset.