Politicsיעקב ליצמן

Jacob Litzman

Yaakov Litzman is an Israeli former politician who served as Minister of Health and Minister of Construction and Housing and was a Knesset member from 1999 to 2022.

born 1948Serving as Israel's Minister of HealthLeading Agudat Yisrael in the KnessetChairing the Knesset Finance CommitteeThe Malka Leifer plea agreement

Born: 2 September 1948, Germany
Occupation: politician, rabbi
Party: Union of Israel
Education: Tshibin Yeshiva

Jacob Litzman was born in 1948 in Germany

Litzman was born in 1948 in a displaced persons camp in Germany to Holocaust survivors from Poland. In 1950 the family moved to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, where he grew up in Borough Park. In 1966 he immigrated to Israel to continue his Torah studies in Jerusalem.

His first job was as principal of a Beis Yaakov girls' school in Jerusalem. A follower of the Ger Hasidic dynasty, he entered politics under the guidance of the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Simcha Binem Alter. He later worked as an aide to Avraham Yosef Shapira and to Deputy Minister Moshe Ze'ev Feldman.

He was elected to the Knesset for Agudat Yisrael in United Torah Judaism in 1999. He chaired the Finance Committee in 2001 to 2003 and 2005 to 2007. In 2009 he became Deputy Minister of Health, and in 2015 he was appointed Minister of Health after a Supreme Court ruling.

As health minister he reinstated water fluoridation, expanded dental care for children and promoted vaccination. He resigned from the government in 2017 over railway work on Shabbat, returned as minister in 2019, and became Minister of Construction and Housing in 2020.

In 2022 he resigned from the Knesset under a plea agreement in the Malka Leifer case. He was convicted of fraud and breach of trust and received a suspended sentence and a fine. He is married with 5 children and lives in Jerusalem.