90 years old when he died.
Rabbi Haim Druckman (Photo: Flash 90, Olbia Fitosi)
Rabbi Haim Druckman, one of the leaders of religious Zionism, passed away today (Sunday), and he was 90 years old at the time of his death.
The rabbi was recently hospitalized at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem due to a deterioration in his medical condition after being diagnosed as positive for the corona virus about two weeks ago.
Rabbis, public figures and his students paid tribute and mourned his death.
The date of his funeral will be announced in a later announcement.
Following the announcement of his passing, the Chairman of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich, paid tribute to him: "The crown of our head has fallen, woe to us because we have been broken," he said.
The nation of Israel and the entire world lost one of the spiritual giants of our generation, a righteous man, a man of education, a man whose whole mind is dedicated to the Torah of the Land of Israel, the people of Israel and the Land of Israel.
He made many students throughout the generations and brought to life in them the teachings of his sages."
The Minister of the Interior, Ayelet Shaked, also paid tribute to the rabbi: "A great leader and an outstanding educator has passed away. The rabbi embodied in his life the integration of the Land of Israel, the people of Israel and the Torah of Israel, he set generations of students whom he educated on the path of Torah and work, and today they take a significant part At the core of action in Israeli society.
"I have known the rabbi for many years.
In 2012, I met him for the first time when I ran for the Jewish Home primary.
Although I did not grow up in the national religious sector, the rabbi welcomed me with a smile on his face and joy.
Over the years in Israeli politics in which I consulted with him, the bond between us grew tighter and I had the privilege of discovering that the rabbi has a good eye, wisdom in life and a person who knows how to accept others."
Druckman (photo: official website, Yossi Zeliger)
Druckman, winner of the Israel Prize, president of the 'Or Etzion' institutions and chairman of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva and studio center, is considered the spiritual authority in the national religious community. In recent years, he has become an influential figure in the political arena, supporting the Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett. After the latter founded a new party and established The government with the support of Rabbi Druckman supported the religious Zionism led by Smotrich.
His political influence was broad and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the time sent the head of the National Assembly at the time Meir Ben Shabat to influence him to convince Bennett and Shaked to back down from the ultimatum they set to accept the Ministry of Defense. Another time, Netanyahu's entourage brought the rabbi together with the chairman of Ra'am Mansour Abbas so that the rabbi would allow the establishment of the government with Ram.
Rabbi Druckman was the only son of his parents - Avraham Mordechai and Milka Druckman, born in Poland in 1932, lived through the Holocaust and was saved three times from certain death.
In 1944, during the war, he managed to immigrate to Israel by himself, on a Ma'apilim ship.
Later, his parents also managed to reach Israel.
He is a graduate of the Merkaz Rabbi yeshiva in Jerusalem, and was very close to the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook ztzal, and is considered one of his outstanding students.
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He served as the head of the conversion system in the Prime Minister's Office until the beginning of 2012. The meeting of the Chief Rabbinate Council (photo: official website, Chief Rabbinate of Israel)
Druckman was one of the originators of the idea of "settlement yeshiva" for the integration of members of religious yeshiva within the framework of military service.
He was the head of institutions he founded in 1964 in the Shapira Center and they include a high school yeshiva, pre-military-Torah preparatory school and more.
One of the famous sentences he used to say was, "We study Torah to fulfill our national duties, and serve in the army to fulfill our religious duty."
Although he was moderate, he was among the rabbis who ordered to refuse an order following the expulsion from Gush Katif.
In the early 1980s, with the beginning of the great aliyah from Russia, in view of the dire plight of the new immigrants from the Commonwealth of Nations, who wanted to convert and integrate into the country, Rabbi Druckman initiated the opening of a special court for conversion, as part of the activities of the general courts of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
In 2004, he responded to the request of the Prime Minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, and took it upon himself to coordinate the issue of conversion in the State of Israel, and served as head of the conversion system in the Prime Minister's Office until the beginning of 2012. During his tenure in office, the rabbi came into the eye of the storm after the Great Rabbinical Court ruled in an unprecedented decision that All the conversions made by him during his time as head of the organization should be disqualified after it was claimed that he instituted a policy that facilitates conversions.
Four years later, the High Court accepted the petition submitted by the Attorney General at the time, Manny Mazuz, invalidated the decision of the court and recognized the conversion of Rabbi Druckman.
From 1977 to 1989 and from 1999 to 2003, Rabbi Druckman served as a member of the Knesset.
In this framework, he served, among other things, as the deputy minister for religious affairs on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Defense and a member of various committees in the Knesset. He resigned from his position as deputy minister following the withdrawal from Mimit that was approved by the Knesset at the time. Over the years, he trained thousands of students, some of them politicians and public figures, including: Israel Katz, Dodi Amsalem, Benny Gantz, Yossi Cohen and more.
He recently became an influential figure in the political arena, and supported the Jewish Home party led by Bennett.
Druckman and Bennett (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Rabbi Druckman was one of the two winners of the Israel Prize in the field of "life work - a special contribution to society and the country" for the year 2017. Rabbi Druckman's win caused a small uproar after some graduates of the religious Nativ Meir yeshiva demanded that he be stripped of the award because, according to them, he had covered up a case of sexual offenses at the institution The rabbi claimed in retrospect that he regretted not reporting to the police because he thought he had fulfilled his duty by terminating the manager's job and he had "no intention of hiding or hiding."
He was married to Rabbi Sara, a doctor by profession, and the two lived in the Shapira center, where he also served as rabbi The Yishuv. They had nine children, one adopted and others who found their home with the Druckman family. Rabbi Druckman did not have a driver's license, and among other things they said that his wife forbade him to take him out so that he could sleep while traveling due to his tight schedule. Thus, on one occasion his life was saved When he drove his car to Kiryat Arba, he leaned his chair to take a nap and bullets fired at his car - passed him by.
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