Menachem Froman

Menachem Froman was born in 1945 in Kfar Hasidim

Froman was born and raised in Kfar Hasidim, the son of Leah Raizel and Yehuda Arieh Froman. His father came from a family of Ger Hasidim and left religious life. As a youth he was active in the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed movement.

He finished the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and served in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade. He later studied Jewish thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and became religious. He studied at the Mercaz HaRav and HaKotel yeshivas and was ordained as a rabbi by Shlomo Goren and Avraham Shapira.

He was among the founders of Gush Emunim. He served as rabbi of Migdal Oz and taught at Machon Meir, Ateret Cohanim, Mekor Chaim, Tekoa and Otniel. He was rabbi of Tekoa until his death and won the Avi Chai Prize.

Froman held that peace must involve religious leaders on both sides. He met Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leaders, and took part in the 1991 Madrid peace conference. In 2008 he and journalist Khaled Amayreh drafted a ceasefire proposal that Hamas officials endorsed and the Israeli government did not answer.

He was married to Hadassah Froman and had 10 children. Colon cancer was found in late 2010, and he added Chai Shalom to his name. He died in 2013.