Yaakov Litzman

Litzman was born in 1948 in a displaced persons camp in Germany to parents who had survived the Holocaust in Poland.[2] His family moved to the United States when he was young, and he grew up in Brooklyn, first in East New York and then in Borough Park.[5] Accounts differ on when he immigrated to Israel: the Congressional Research Service gives 1965, while the Center for Israel Education gives 1966.[6][1]

After immigrating, Litzman continued religious studies at Yeshivat Kochav MiYaakov-Tchebin in Jerusalem and managed the Beit Yaakov-Hassidic elementary school.[2] Biographical accounts also describe him as principal or head of a Hasidic girls’ school in Jerusalem.[6][5]

Litzman is a member of Ger Hasidism, also known as Gur Hasidism. He became a close adviser to the community’s leader, Rebbe Alter, who encouraged him to enter politics.[1] A separate biography says that Gerrer Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov Arye Alter asked him to join the Aguda electoral slate in 1999.[5]

Before his election to the Knesset, Litzman initiated the establishment of a Haredi neighborhood in Beit Shemesh, served as an aide to Agudat Yisrael Knesset member Avraham Yosef Shapira in the early 1980s, and became an adviser in 1989 to Moshe Ze’ev Feldman, then deputy minister of labor and social welfare. He is married to Hava and has five children.[2]

Litzman entered the Knesset in 1999 as a representative of Agudat Yisrael, the Hasidic party associated with Ger.[1][7] Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah formed the United Torah Judaism alliance in 1992 and subsequently ran together as a joint list.[8]

His parliamentary work included assignments focused on finance and social policy. He served on the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee from 1999 to 2001, was deputy chairman of the Labor and Welfare Committee, and chaired the Finance Committee from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2005 to 2007.[5] He also served on the Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee and participated voluntarily in social and environmental parliamentary lobbies.[9]

Litzman became chairman of United Torah Judaism in 2009.[2] After that year’s election, his party joined Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.[5] He led Agudat Yisrael, representing Hasidic communities, while Moshe Gafni led Degel HaTorah, representing Lithuanian, non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox Jews.[7]

In 2019, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah reunited on a joint ticket, with Litzman remaining at the head of the party under their arrangement.[8] Before the March 2021 election, Gafni took the leading position on the UTJ list and Litzman was placed second, ahead of Uri Maklev. Litzman nevertheless remained head of the Agudat Yisrael faction.[2][10]

In a commentary on Haredi political responsibility, Litzman was quoted as saying that protecting Shabbat was his greatest responsibility and that, if he failed in that task, he had no reason to remain in government. The same account noted that his work addressed medical-cannabis availability, MRI waiting times, and reform of the dental sector.[11]

After the 2009 election, Litzman became deputy health minister and exercised ministerial authority until 2013. He returned to government in 2015 and became health minister after a legal ruling that a deputy minister could not fulfill a minister’s role and after receiving approval from the Council of Torah Sages. His service subsequently alternated between the titles of minister and deputy minister, although he directed the ministry in practice while serving as deputy.[2]

In 2017, Litzman resigned as health minister in protest over railway maintenance work on Shabbat. The leader of the Gur Hasidic community had ruled that Litzman could not serve as a minister while the work continued.[12] Litzman later returned as deputy minister, and an amendment to Basic Law: The Government allowed Netanyahu to retain the formal ministerial title while Litzman controlled the ministry as deputy minister.[2][12]

Litzman again became health minister in late 2019. Overall, he headed the ministry as a deputy or full minister for much of the period from 2009 to 2020, apart from the years when he was out of government between 2013 and 2015.[2][13] While in office, he also advocated for healthier food to be served in schools.[1]

His ministerial activity was not confined to health policy. A 2016 INSS analysis discussed a compromise proposed by Litzman and accepted by the prime minister and education minister concerning the National Security Council’s role in improving security-cabinet members’ access to intelligence and strategic assessments. The analysis argued that questions remained about information security, political barriers to sharing sensitive material, and the need to strengthen the council.[14]

In April 2020, during the coronavirus crisis, Litzman told Netanyahu that he would leave the Health Ministry and seek an expanded Housing Ministry portfolio. People around him said he felt he had reached the end of his time in the Health Ministry after roughly ten years and that the housing portfolio had been under consideration for much of the preceding year. They also said the change was his own decision rather than a response to criticism of his pandemic performance.[13] He became minister of housing and construction in the government sworn in on May 17, 2020.[15]

In September 2020, Litzman resigned as housing minister in protest against a planned lockdown over the Jewish holidays. He objected to the timing, said it showed a lack of respect for the holidays, and protested that restrictions had been delayed until the holiday period despite a sharp rise in infections.[16]

Litzman remained a senior UTJ figure before the March 2021 election, when he was placed second on the slate behind Gafni.[10] He resigned from the Knesset in June 2022 under the terms of his plea agreement, ending 23 years in parliament.[2][17]

As health minister during the first wave of COVID-19, Litzman became a prominent figure in the government’s response. During the tightening of restrictions, he asked Netanyahu to allow synagogues to remain open.[18] On April 2, 2020, Litzman and his wife tested positive for the virus. The Health Ministry said they felt well, were receiving appropriate treatment, and would isolate according to instructions.[19] They later recovered after tests came back negative, while Litzman’s diagnosis prompted Netanyahu and other senior officials to enter temporary self-quarantine.[20]

Public assessments of his performance were sharply divided. An April 2020 analysis reported that 87% of ultra-Orthodox respondents approved of Litzman’s performance as health minister, while the same percentage of other Israelis disapproved. A separate poll cited in a July 2020 study reported that 40% of respondents viewed his activities during the crisis positively. The sources do not provide enough methodological detail to treat the figures as directly comparable.[21][22]

Witnesses cited in a television report alleged that Litzman had attended group prayers in violation of social-distancing guidelines shortly before his diagnosis. Litzman denied violating the guidelines, so the allegation should be distinguished from the confirmed reports of his diagnosis and recovery.[20]

In a radio interview discussed in a commentary article, Litzman was asked how the country would be run if Haredi society became the majority. He replied, “We will never be a majority.” The account identified him at that time as housing and construction minister.[18]

Litzman’s 23 years in the Knesset combined long-term representation of Agudat Yisrael with sustained leadership in the Health Ministry. He also twice chaired the Finance Committee, giving him significant roles in both social policy and state budgeting.[2][5]

His record reflected the dual role of Haredi coalition politics. He advanced Sabbath observance and communal priorities while also addressing medical cannabis, MRI waiting times, dental reform, and school nutrition.[1][11] His resignations over railway work on Shabbat and the 2020 holiday lockdown showed how religious commitments could directly shape his participation in government.[12][16]

A series of investigations and allegations involving Litzman culminated in a breach-of-trust conviction. In 2019, police said there was an adequate evidentiary basis to recommend charges in several matters. These included allegations that he tried to influence psychiatric assessments concerning Malka Leifer’s fitness for extradition to Australia, intervened on behalf of a food business owned by an associate after serious hygiene problems were found, and became involved in cases concerning prisoners seeking release. At that stage these were allegations; Litzman denied involvement in the Leifer matter, and the report noted the presumption of innocence.[23]

In May 2021, prosecutors notified Litzman’s lawyers that the attorney general was considering charges, subject to a hearing, including obstruction of justice and breach of trust. The allegations included pressure on a district psychiatrist to change an assessment of Leifer’s fitness to stand trial and extradition, as well as intervention in the case of a catering business facing closure for serious hygiene deficiencies. Litzman’s representatives maintained his innocence and said he had assisted members of the public without discrimination and in accordance with the law. A bribery allegation had been dropped.[24]

In January 2022, Litzman agreed to a plea deal under which he would admit breach of trust for using his former position as deputy health minister in an effort to thwart Leifer’s extradition to Australia. The obstruction charge was not part of the conviction, the separate food-business case was closed, and the agreement provided for a suspended sentence and a fine. His lawyers characterized the admitted episode as an exceptional response to a public request and said he had acted without personal motives.[17][25]

In June 2022, a court convicted Litzman of breach of trust after he admitted the offense. The prosecution said he used his position as health minister and deputy minister to approach a district psychiatrist in an attempt to influence an opinion that would prevent Leifer’s extradition.[3] In August, the court imposed an eight-month prison sentence suspended for three years and a fine of 3,000 shekels. The judge said the conduct had caused no concrete harm and was not part of corruption carried out intensively over years; the district prosecutor said the ruling affirmed that interference by a public official in the professional judgment of subordinate officials constitutes breach of trust.[4]

A 2020 human-rights report stated that Litzman, then deputy minister of housing and construction, was under investigation for alleged offenses. The passage did not identify those allegations or report an outcome, so it established only that an investigation was reported at that time, not a finding of guilt.[26] The final outcome documented here is the 2022 breach-of-trust conviction in the Leifer matter, together with closure of the separate food-business case under the plea agreement.[17]