Moshe-Zvi Neria

Moshe-Zvi Neria was born in 1913 in Łódź

Neria was born Moshe-Zvi Menkin in Łódź, then in the Russian Empire, to Rabbi Petachia Menkin and Rachel. He studied Torah in Minsk and Shklov under Rabbis Moshe and Mordechai Feinstein. He moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1930.

In Jerusalem he studied at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and received rabbinic ordination. He also attended the Mizrachi teachers seminary.

He was a leader of the Bnei Akiva youth movement, edited its journal Zra'im and wrote its anthem. In 1939 he founded the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar Haroeh and later started many more yeshivas and ulpanas across the country. He also drafted the prayer text for Independence Day.

From 1969 to 1974 he was a Knesset member for the National Religious Party. In 1983 he left the party and founded the Mazad movement. In 1993 he helped found the Union of Rabbis for the Land of Israel in opposition to the Oslo Accords.

He wrote many books on the life and thought of Rabbi Kook. He received the Israel Prize in 1978 and died in 1995. He and his wife Rachel had 8 children.