Abraham Isaac Kook, known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH, was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one of the fathers of religious Zionism and is known for founding the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva.
Religious Zionism is an ideology that views Zionism as a fundamental component of Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as Dati Leumi, and in Israel, they are most commonly known by the plural form of the first part of that term: Datiim. The community is sometimes called 'Knitted kippah', the typical head covering worn by male adherents to Religious Zionism.
Arutz Sheva, also known in English as Israel National News, is an Israeli media network identifying with religious Zionism. It offers online news articles in Hebrew, English, and Russian as well as live streaming radio, video and free podcasts. It also publishes a weekly newspaper, B'Sheva, with the third-largest weekend circulation in the country.
Avraham Shapira was a prominent rabbi in the Religious Zionist world. Shapira had been the head of the Rabbinical court of Jerusalem, and both a member and the head of the Supreme Rabbinic Court. He served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Shapira was the rosh yeshiva of Mercaz haRav in Jerusalem, a position he held since Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook died in 1982.
Mercaz HaRav is a national-religious yeshiva in Jerusalem, founded in 1924 by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Located in the city's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, it has become the most prominent religious-Zionist yeshiva in the world and synonymous with Rabbi Kook's teachings. Many Religious Zionist educators and leaders have studied at Mercaz HaRav.
Isser Zalman Meltzer, was a Ashkenazi rosh yeshiva and posek. He is also known as the "Even HaEzel"—the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishneh Torah.
Yeshivat Ma'alot Ya'akov is a Hesder Yeshiva, founded in 1975 in the town of Maalot following the Ma'alot massacre. The Yeshiva is named after Rabbi Dr. Ya'akov Herzog, son of the late Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and brother of the late President of Israel Chaim Herzog. The Rosh Yeshiva is Rabbi Yehoshua Weitzman.
Rabbi Yehoshua Weitzman is an Israeli Rosh Yeshiva, heading Yeshivat Ma’alot Ya’akov, and prominent as a teacher and scholar of Torat Eretz Yisrael.
David Cohen was a rabbi, talmudist, philosopher, kabbalist, and a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. A noted Jewish ascetic, he took a Nazirite vow at the outbreak of World War I.
The Hebrew expression Torat Eretz Yisrael refers to the idea that Torah thoughts emanating from the land of Israel are of great religious status. In the Midrash Genesis Rabbah it is stated: “there is no Torah like the Torah of the Land of Israel, and there is no wisdom like the wisdom of the Land of Israel." Another midrash in the Sifre indicates that there is a unique flavor to the land of Israel because the Torah is located in it.
David Hanoch Yitzchak Bar-Hayim is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi who heads the Shilo Institute, a Jerusalem-based rabbinical court and institute of Jewish education dedicated to the Torah of Israel.
Ya'akov Dov "Ketzele" Katz is an Israeli politician. He led the National Union party from 2008 to 2012, for whom he was a member of the Knesset, and is also the executive director of Beit El yeshiva Center Institutions and Arutz Sheva.
Jewish thought, also known as Judaic thought or Hebraic thought, is a field of Jewish studies that deals with the products of Jewish thought and culture throughout the ages, and their historical development. The field also deals with the connections, parallels, and influences, between Jewish ways of thought and world philosophy in general.
Rabbi Moshe-Zvi Neria was an Israeli educator, writer, and rosh yeshiva who served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party between 1969 and 1974. Neria established and headed the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar Haroeh, and was one of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's most influential disciples. Due to his far-reaching influence on Religious Zionism, he is known as "the father of the knit kippah generation."
Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli was one of the leading rabbis of religious Zionism. He served as the rabbi of moshav Kfar Haroeh, as a Dayan in the Supreme religious court of Israel, as a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, as Rosh Yeshiva in Mercaz HaRav, and as President of the Eretz Hemdah Institute. Rabbi Yisraeli was awarded the Israel Prize in Judaic Studies.
The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives is the oldest and most important Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives has been a traditional Hebrew/Jewish burial location since antiquity, and the main present-day cemetery portion is approximately five centuries old, having been first leased from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf in the sixteenth century. The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 150,000 tombs, including the tombs of famous figures in early modern Jewish history. It is considered to be the largest and holiest historical Jewish cemetery on earth.
Yeshivat Har Bracha, is a national-religious yeshiva in Har Brakha, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank near Nablus. The yeshiva was founded in 1991 by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed.
Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tucazinsky (1871–1955) was a halachic scholar and author who served as rosh yeshiva of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is best known for his work on the laws of mourning, Gesher HaChaim, and for developing the Israeli religious calendar.
Noam is a far-right Orthodox Jewish, Religious Zionist political party in Israel, officially established in July 2019 by a very conservative faction in the Religious Zionist community inspired by Rabbi Zvi Thau and his Har Hamor Yeshiva. The party's main goal is to advance policies against LGBT rights, and against what its backers call "the destruction of the family". Avi Maoz, the party's leader, was elected to the Knesset in 2021, and is the party's sole representative.
