Michael Kleiner

Michael Kleiner was born in 1948 in Munich

Kleiner was born in Munich, Germany, to Ya'acov and Paula Kleiner, whose families came from Sosnowiec, Poland. He immigrated to Israel with his family in 1951.

After serving in the IDF Intelligence Corps, he studied law at Tel Aviv University and became a lawyer. As a student he chaired the university's student union.

He served on the Tel Aviv city council and headed the Herut youth. He entered the Knesset for Likud in 1982, later chaired Amidar, and returned to the Knesset in 1988, where he chaired the Immigration and Absorption Committee. He joined David Levy's Gesher and was elected again in 1996 on the Likud list.

In 1999 he left Likud with Benny Begin and David Re'em in protest of the Wye agreement and founded Herut, The National Movement. After Begin left politics, Kleiner led the party, which failed to win seats in 2003. He also led a Knesset lobby for the release of Jonathan Pollard and worked to return Holocaust victims' insurance funds to their heirs.

He returned to Likud before the 2009 election. Since 2012 he has sat on the board of the Ghetto Fighters House, and in July 2013 he was elected President of the Likud court.