Isaac Raphael

Isaac Raphael was born in 1914 in Sasiv

Rafael was born in 1914 in Sasiv, Galicia, to Shmuel-Zvi and Esther Werfel. He studied at the Jewish gymnasium in Lviv, focusing on literature and history. He belonged to the Torah and Work movement and was among the founders of Bnei Akiva in Poland.

He moved to the Land of Israel in 1935 and studied at the Hebrew University, later earning an MA in humanities. He taught at the Ma'ale school in Jerusalem and married the writer Geula, daughter of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon. He later received a doctorate in literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

At his father-in-law's request he began directing Mossad HaRav Kook, a post he held until his death, and he edited religious journals including Sinai. During the 1948 war he served on the Jerusalem Emergency Committee. From 1948 to 1953 he sat on the Jewish Agency board and headed its aliyah department.

He served in the Knesset from 1951 to 1977 and was Deputy Minister of Health from 1961 to 1965. He resigned that post after an inquiry committee into a bribery affair found fault in his conduct, and he was later charged and acquitted. He led the National Religious Party from 1970 and was Minister of Religions in 1974 and from 1974 to 1976.

He lost his seat in the 1977 elections and left politics. He won the Bialik Prize in 1979, the Rabbi Kook Prize in 1986 and the Shapira Prize in 1989. He died in 1999.