Zalman Baruch Melamed

Zalman Baruch Melamed was born in 1937 in Tel Aviv

Melamed was born in Tel Aviv in 1937. His father, David Melamed, was born in Kharkiv, and his mother, Raaya, was the daughter of Rabbi Eliyahu Epstein of Balfouria. As a youth he belonged to the Bnei Akiva youth movement.

He studied at the Kfar Haroeh yeshiva and at Knesset Hizkiyahu in Zikhron Ya'akov. In 1953 he was among the founders of Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh. In 1954 he moved to Mercaz HaRav, where he grew close to Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and studied for about a decade.

In 1965 he became a teacher at Mercaz HaRav. At the request of Rabbi Kook he founded a yeshiva near Beit El, and the community of Beit El B was built around it. He was neighborhood rabbi in Beit El until 2013.

In 1988 he founded Arutz Sheva, which his wife Shulamit manages. He founded the Yesha Rabbis Council, helped establish the Tkuma party, and called for refusing orders during the disengagement plan. He and Shulamit have 7 children.