Uri Orbach

Uri Orbach was born in 1960 in Petah Tikva

Orbach was born in Petah Tikva in 1960 and grew up there, the son of Pnina and Aharon Orbach. He studied at Yeshivat Nehalim and at the Kiryat Shmona Hesder yeshiva, and later earned a teaching certificate from Lifshitz College.

He joined the IDF in 1979 and served as a combat soldier in the Armored Corps. He took part in the First Lebanon War.

Orbach helped found the religious children's magazine Otiot and was its first editor. He wrote a weekly column for Yedioth Ahronoth and co-hosted the Army Radio show The Last Word. He also wrote humorous children's books and My Grandfather Was a Rabbi, a humorous lexicon of religious life.

In 2008 he joined the Jewish Home and entered the Knesset in 2009 when the party won 3 seats. He initiated laws such as sugar labeling on food products and Shabbat elevators in shared buildings. On 18 March 2013 he became Minister of Pensioner Affairs.

He was married to Michal and had 4 children, and lived in Modiin. He was diagnosed with a hematologic disease in 2012 and died on 16 February 2015. Since 2016 the Education Minister's Prize for Jewish Culture bears his name.