Menachem Porush

Menachem Porush was born in 1916 in Jerusalem

Porush was born in Jerusalem in 1916 to Moshe and Shifra Porush, a seventh-generation Jerusalem family. He studied at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva. In 1932 he was expelled after a Purim play that mocked Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and he later said he had not known the play would do so.

From 1932 to 1938 he worked abroad as a correspondent for Haredi newspapers. In 1949 he became an editor at the newspaper Kol Yisrael, and in 1950 he published and edited the Agudat Yisrael paper HaMevaser. He founded a network of children's homes in 1951 and helped found the Independent Education system in 1953.

In 1955 he became chairman of the Agudat Yisrael Center, and in 1959 he was first elected to the Knesset. From 1969 to 1974 he was also deputy mayor of Jerusalem, and in 1973 he founded Kiryat HaYeled. He resigned in 1975 and returned to the Knesset after the 1977 elections.

In 1984 he refused a demand by the Gerrer Rebbe to give up his seat, and Gur Hasidim then attacked him and he was hospitalized. He was Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare in 1984 to 1985 and 1990 to 1992. He left the Knesset in 1994, and his son Meir Porush also became a Knesset member.

In 2009 he founded the newspaper HaMevaser with his son Meir. He died in Jerusalem in 2010.