Yehoshua Menachem Pollack

Yehoshua Menachem Pollack was born in 1948 in Romania

Pollack was born on 12 February 1948 in Oradea, Romania, to a family of the Vizhnitz Hasidic movement. His family moved to Israel in 1961. He studied at the Ponevezh yeshiva for young students and at the Knesset Hizkiyahu yeshiva in Kfar Hasidim.

In 1981 he became acting head of the Jerusalem religious council and held the post until 2002. Politically he belonged to the Shlomei Emunim faction within Agudat Yisrael. In 2003 he was second on the United Torah Judaism list for the Jerusalem city council and became deputy mayor under Uri Lupolianski, heading the planning and building committee.

He was eighth on the United Torah Judaism list for the 2006 Knesset elections. He entered the Knesset on 26 January 2009 after the death of Avraham Ravitz, sitting with the Agudat Yisrael faction. He lost his seat in the February 2009 elections.

A criminal investigation was opened against him in May 2006 over suspected irregularities at the religious council. He was arrested in April 2010 on suspicion of involvement in the Holyland affair. He also served as treasurer of Beitar Illit until 2014, and in 2013 he left Shlomei Emunim and joined Bnei Torah.

He is married to Ora and lives in the Givat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem. He has 8 children.