Yisrael Ariel

Yisrael Ariel was born in 1939 in Kiryat Motzkin

Yisrael Ariel was born Yisrael Stieglitz on 15 August 1939 in Kiryat Motzkin. His parents, Moshe and Esther Stieglitz, were Ruzhin Hasidim. His brother, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, later became chief rabbi of Ramat Gan.

He studied at the Kerem B'Yavneh, Kfar Hasidim and Mercaz HaRav yeshivas. He served in the paratrooper Nahal and later in the Paratroopers Brigade reserves. In the Six-Day War he was among the soldiers who captured the Temple Mount.

After the war he was rabbi of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council and of Sde Yaakov. He later served as rabbi of Yamit until its evacuation in 1982. He ran as number 2 on the Kach list for the Knesset, which did not pass the threshold.

During the struggle against the Yamit evacuation he called on soldiers to refuse orders and was arrested for sedition. In 1983 he was arrested with 28 yeshiva students and charged with sedition, and they were acquitted about half a year later.

In 1987 he founded the Temple Institute, which prepares vessels for a future Temple. In 1997 he founded the Dvir high school yeshiva, and he also founded the Beit HaBechira yeshiva in the Old City. He has been involved in an attempt to revive the Sanhedrin.