Rafi Peretz

Rafi Peretz was born in Jerusalem on January 7, 1956.[1][2] He studied at the Bnei Akiva Netiv Meir yeshiva[1] and was later ordained at Yeshivat Hakotel.[3] He is married to Michal and has twelve children.[4]

After completing his yeshiva studies, Peretz combined Torah learning with professional military aviation. He became a helicopter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, serving in a helicopter squadron for approximately thirty years and, for seventeen of those years, as its only kippah-wearing member.[5] He continued flying in the reserves; when appointed chief military rabbi in 2010, he was promoted to brigadier general.[5][4]

Reflecting his commitment to combining Torah education with IDF service, Peretz founded the Atzmona pre-military academy — later known as Otzem — in the Gush Katif community of Atzmona in the Gaza Strip.[6][4] Sources differ slightly on the founding year, with a 2010 report citing 1993 and later profiles dating it to 1992; the program was designed to integrate Torah study with preparation for service in the IDF.[6][4] Peretz led the academy for more than two decades, and it became known for developing future leaders within the socially conservative national religious camp.[6][7]

The 2005 Disengagement Plan presented Peretz with a profound personal and ideological challenge. He opposed the withdrawal from Gaza, and accounts from the period convey the depth of that opposition: when IDF official Elazar Stern visited the yeshiva in the days before the evacuation, his wife Dorit asked Peretz's wife how the family was preparing the children to leave. Peretz's wife answered, "What pullout? It will never happen!"[8] Despite this, Peretz opposed violent resistance and refusal of orders.[4] When soldiers arrived to carry out the evacuation, he instructed his students not to harm them and led the academy's departure without physical confrontation.[9] He reportedly embraced the soldiers sent to evict his community — a gesture the Center for Israel Education presents as an expression of the importance he placed on unity within the IDF.[2]

After the disengagement, the academy was re-established at Halutza in the Eshkol region and continued to operate under Peretz's leadership until he entered politics in 2019.[6][4][7]

In January 2010, the IDF Spokesperson announced that Peretz — then a reserve lieutenant colonel and head of the Atzmona academy — had been selected to serve as Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, succeeding Rabbi Avichai Rontzki.[4] The appointment was approved by Defense Minister Ehud Barak after the chief of staff selected him; he was promoted to brigadier general upon taking the post.[4] A Congressional Research Service report records his tenure as running from 2010 to 2016.[10]

Peretz described his overarching aim as being "the rabbi of everyone" — including Haredi, religious, and secular soldiers, as well as those across the political spectrum.[5] A 2011 report identified him as one of the IDF's first religious pilots and quoted a Yeshiva University rabbinical-school dean saying Peretz had made it his mission from the outset of his tenure to instill Jewish pride in soldiers and in the nation.[11]

One of the more delicate duties he performed as chief rabbi came during the 2014 Gaza war, when Peretz presided over the process that led the IDF to declare Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul killed in action, even though his body had not been recovered. Peretz led a thirty-hour session involving rabbis, soldiers, and medical professionals before the determination was made; he subsequently informed Shaul's family that they should begin mourning rituals, including sitting shiva, despite having no remains to bury.[12]

Peretz left the chief rabbi post in 2016 after six years.[13] Colonel Eyal Karim was named as his successor. A report suggested that Peretz's departure was connected to what he regarded as harm to the military rabbinate — specifically the transfer of the Jewish Consciousness branch from the rabbinate to the IDF Personnel Directorate — though it characterized that explanation as probable rather than officially confirmed.[3]

Peretz entered electoral politics in 2019, three years after retiring as chief military rabbi.[13] Following the departure of Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked from HaBayit HaYehudi (the Jewish Home party), a religious-Zionist selection committee reviewed more than seventy candidates before choosing Peretz as party chairman in February 2019; the party center subsequently ratified the choice.[14]

The Congressional Research Service described the Union of Right-Wing Parties as a right-of-center alliance with a base among religious Zionists and constituencies supporting West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — settlements and annexation.[10] Before the April 2019 election, the Jewish Home agreed to a merger with the National Union, Tkuma, and Otzma Yehudit; the resulting electoral list was called the Union of Right-Wing Parties.[15] The Jewish Virtual Library described the merger as controversial and noted it followed Benjamin Netanyahu's urging that the alliance include Otzma Yehudit, partly to avoid right-wing votes being lost if parties failed to pass the electoral threshold.[15] Peretz was listed first on that slate, which won 159,468 votes — 3.70 percent — and five Knesset seats in April 2019.[16]

For the September 2019 election, Peretz was listed second on the United Right (Yamina) slate, which won 260,655 votes — 5.87 percent — and seven seats; he was also listed second among Yamina's members of the 22nd Knesset.[16]

In December 2019, Peretz announced a fresh agreement to include Otzma Yehudit members on his party's electoral list, describing it as a first step toward a broader right-wing alliance.[17] The agreement drew internal opposition: party activists said it had been made without the knowledge of the party center or MK Motti Yogev, and demanded a formal debate on the matter.[17] In January 2020, under pressure from Likud and other right-wing officials, and amid concern that a Jewish Home–Otzma Yehudit slate would not cross the 3.25 percent threshold, Peretz reversed course at the eleventh hour and merged Jewish Home with Naftali Bennett's New Right and National Union under the Yamina banner.[18][15] Peretz later described the decision to abandon the Otzma Yehudit agreement as a choice made to connect with the broader religious-Zionist camp and prevent right-wing votes from being wasted.[19]

Peretz served as Minister of Education from 2019 to 2020, his first government portfolio.[13] During his tenure, he oversaw the ministry's adaptation to the COVID-19 crisis, later describing how the education system had pivoted to distance learning rapidly, "in no time," despite the limitations involved.[20]

On February 4, 2020, Peretz announced he would award the Israel Prize for Torah literature to Rabbi Yaacov Ariel, the former rabbi of Ramat Gan.[21][22] Ariel had made public statements against LGBTQ+ people, including a 2014 call not to rent apartments to lesbian couples.[21][22] The Israel LGBT Taskforce petitioned the Supreme Court against the award. On April 26, 2020, the court rejected the petition, ruling that the case did not warrant judicial intervention; Ariel did not retract his statements.[21][22]

In May 2020, Peretz split from Yamina and joined the unity government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, sworn in on May 17, 2020.[20] Under the coalition agreement, he did not continue as education minister but was appointed Minister of Jerusalem, Heritage and National Projects; he also became an observer in the security cabinet and a member of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.[20][23] The government at the time comprised 36 cabinet ministers and 16 deputy ministers, with the coalition agreement envisaging ministers switching portfolios during the government's term.[23] Some of Peretz's Yamina allies objected to his departure from the opposition-bound alliance.[24]

Representing HaBayit HaYehudi in the 35th government, Peretz served as Minister of Jerusalem, Heritage and National Projects from May 2020.[23][24] In a January 2020 interview, he stated his support for applying Israeli sovereignty to settlements in Judea and Samaria and to Area C.[25] Asked about the future of Palestinians living in those areas under such a scenario, he said they should be able to live normal lives and vote in municipal elections, while rejecting the notion of a separate armed force between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.[25]

In January 2021, Peretz announced he would not seek re-election as party leader and would not run in the coming Knesset election, effectively ending his political career.[19] He said he would remain in his ministerial post until a new government was formed.[19] In his public remarks explaining the decision, he described joining a party that was in crisis after its previous leadership departed, said he had made difficult decisions to preserve religious Zionism and prevent the loss of right-wing seats, and expressed his belief that the religious-Zionist camp should participate in state leadership — particularly during the challenges of the coronavirus crisis.[13] He was succeeded as Jewish Home chairman by Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Hagit Moshe.[15]

Peretz's public profile has been shaped by his efforts to connect Torah study, IDF service, and religious-Zionist public life. The Otzem academy he founded was described as a training ground for future leaders in the socially conservative national religious camp.[7] During the 2005 disengagement, he opposed refusal of orders and led the academy's evacuation without physical confrontation.[4][9] The Center for Israel Education also recounts that he embraced soldiers sent to evacuate his community, presenting the episode as an example of his emphasis on unity within the IDF.[2]

As chief military rabbi, Peretz said he sought to be "the rabbi of everyone" across religious and political divisions.[5] His move into party leadership brought that military and rabbinic profile into electoral politics, but his national political career was brief: he entered politics in 2019 and announced his departure in January 2021.[13][19]

Peretz's military-rabbinic and political careers generated several notable public controversies.

IDF Rabbinate booklet (2013): A 40-page Rabbinate booklet issued during Peretz's tenure included the phrase "goyim are not entitled to equal rights in the State" and advised against female officers attaching a mezuzah, while concluding that they could do so. Critics called on Peretz to respond, while the IDF said the booklet did not forbid women from performing the ritual. The reporting did not attribute the text personally to Peretz.[26]

Quran remarks (2014): Peretz was reported as saying that "90% of Arabs have no idea what is written in the Quran" and "we know better than many of them, trust me." He subsequently apologized.[13]

Wedding footage (2016): Footage showed Peretz dancing in IDF uniform with settler rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, co-author of Torat Hamelech. A lawmaker argued that his uniform made him a representative of the army; the IDF said he attended to celebrate with the groom's family.[27]

1992 helicopter cable accident: Families of two 669 rescue-unit soldiers killed after a cable attached to the Yas'ur helicopter Peretz was piloting broke petitioned against his 2010 appointment as chief military rabbi. They alleged that he had not helped the soldiers, but the report said an investigative committee accepted his explanations and the petition was rejected.[14]

Conversion therapy remarks (2019): In a July 2019 television interview, Peretz said he believed a person's sexual orientation could be changed and described personal experience with students seeking help, prompting widespread backlash.[28] He later said he had listened to and embraced a distressed pupil before referring him to a psychologist or educator, denied supporting invasive treatments, and said he respected every person.[25] In a letter to Tel Aviv school principals, he stated that he was firmly against conversion therapy and that the education system would accept all sectors and communities.[28]

Intermarriage and "second Holocaust" (2019): Peretz was reported to have told a July 1 cabinet meeting that assimilation among Jews worldwide, especially in the United States, was "like a second Holocaust," and that seventy years of intermarriage had caused the Jewish people to "lose 6 million people." The account came through Axios, which cited people present and reported confirmation from Peretz's spokesman; no meeting transcript was provided.[29]

Ot​​zem academy media report (2019): Channel 13 aired footage from Otzem as evidence that a teacher was hostile toward secular Jews and military service. CAMERA later reported that fuller footage showed Rabbi Asaf Naumberg was role-playing views he attributed to Haredim, and that the reporter apologized.[30] The Times of Israel updated its coverage to say the original report had "been shown to have been false" and that quotations had been presented outside their original context.[7]

Women in military ceremonies (2011–2012): After religious officer cadets left an event featuring a female singer, Peretz said he was developing a halakhic ruling intended to preserve Jewish law, the army, and unit cohesion. Four of the nine cadets were dismissed from the officers' course.[31] In January 2012, he convened military rabbis and declared that "there is no and will be no exclusion of women in the IDF," directing that official ceremonies follow the chief of staff's guidelines and requiring his approval for outside rabbinic lecturers.[32]