Zevulun Orlev

Zevulun Orlev was born in 1945 in Rehovot

Zevulun Orlev was born in Rehovot on 9 November 1945 and grew up in Ramat Gan. He was a member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement.

He studied at the Nehalim yeshiva high school and at the Kerem B'Yavneh yeshiva. He then studied humanities and social sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and trained as a teacher at Moreshet Yaakov College.

He fought in the Six-Day War in the battle for Jerusalem and was wounded in the knee. In the Yom Kippur War he took command of his outpost on the Suez Canal after its commander was wounded, and he received the Medal of Distinguished Service.

He was Director General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and later of the Ministry of Education and Culture. He entered the Knesset in 1999 for the National Religious Party and became Minister of Welfare in 2003. During the dispute over the Gaza disengagement plan, he backed staying in the government and took control of the party.

He later served for the Jewish Home. After losing the party's 2012 leadership election, he retired from politics and did not run in 2013. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Nira.