Former head of the Beit Orot yeshiva Rabbi Benny Elon has passed away after a long struggle with cancer.
The funeral will be held today at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem at 3:30 pm.
The Rabbi, a founder of Beit El, was born in Rehavia in Jerusalem.
He studied in yeshiva high school in Pardes Hana in northern Israel, and later at the Negev Yeshiva and Merkaz Harav in Jerusalem and at the Idra Kolel in the Golan.
He served in the IDF in artillery and was released with the rank of lieutenant.
At 23 he was appointed as head of the religious kibbutz movement’s branches in the Beit Shean Valley in northern Israel. Later, he served as a rabbi at a number of yeshivot, including the hesder yeshiva of Maale Adumim, Machon Meir, and Ateret Cohanim in the Old City of Jerusalem.
In 1990, he and Rabbi Chanan Porat established the Beit Orot Yeshiva on Mount Scopus.
Later, he served in the political sphere as an MK and government minister. In 2004, then-PM Sharon fired Elon and Liberman due to their opposition to the “Disengagement.”
Since then, he had focused on developing the Israel’s connections with other nations at the US congress and other parliaments around the world.
He won the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism in 2016.
