Yona Metzger

Yona Metzger was born in 1953 in Haifa

Yona Metzger was born in Haifa on August 4, 1953, to Elimelech and Hinda. He comes from a national religious family. He studied at the Bnei Akiva high school yeshiva in Kiryat Shmuel and then at the Kerem BeYavne hesder yeshiva, where he was ordained as a rabbi.

In the IDF he served in the 7th Armored Brigade as a tank gunner and fought in the Yom Kippur War on the Golan Heights. He later became a military chaplain and reached the rank of captain.

He became rabbi of the Tiferet Zvi Synagogue in Tel Aviv and wrote several books on Jewish law. In 1998 the Chief Rabbinate Council withdrew his city rabbi certificate over complaints, then returned it after he withdrew his candidacy for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. He joined the Chief Rabbinate Council in 2001.

In 2003 he was elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi with Haredi support. He introduced kashrut changes and promoted interfaith dialogue, including a proposal for a religious United Nations in Jerusalem. A police investigation opened in 2005 was closed in 2006 without charges.

In 2013, while still chief rabbi, a fraud investigation was opened against him. In January 2017 he was convicted of offenses including bribe taking and sentenced to prison.