Shlomo Aviner

Shlomo Aviner was born in 1943 in 6th arrondissement of Lyon

Aviner was born in 1943 in Lyon, France, as Claude Langenauer. During World War II his family used a false identity to escape deportation to the death camps. As a youth he was active in the Bnei Akiva movement in France.

He studied at the Superior School of Electricity in Paris and qualified as an electrical and electronics engineer. He then served in a computing unit of the French Air Force. In 1966 he moved to Israel and settled at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu.

He joined the IDF in 1967 and fought in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. He studied at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav under Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, and later in Hebron. He edited booklets of Kook's talks that became a book series.

In 1971 he became the rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi, and in 1977 the rabbi of Keshet in the Golan Heights. In 1981 he became the rabbi of Beit El, a post he held until 2013. He also headed the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem, later renamed Ateret Yerushalayim.

His public views have drawn controversy. In 2005 he ruled that soldiers should not refuse orders during the Gaza disengagement. Accusations of sexual abuse were published against him, and the public prosecutor closed the investigation.