Dr Yehuda Ben-Meir is a former Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i academic and politician who served as a membef of the Knesset for the National Religious Party

National Religious Party

The National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...

 and Gesher – Zionist Religious Centre

Gesher – Zionist Religious Centre

Gesher – Zionist Religious Centre was a short-lived political faction in Israel in 1984.-Background:The faction was formed on 29 May 1984, during the 10th Knesset, when two MKs, Yehuda Ben-Meir and Zevulun Hammer, broke away from the National Religious Party...

 between 1971 and 1984.

Biography

Born in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir

Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir

Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset from 1952 until his death.-Biography:Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire , Ben-Meir was educated at the Yitzchak Elchanan yeshiva, before studying at Yeshiva University and New York University. He was...

, Ben-Meir studued at the Yishuv HaHadash yeshiva in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

, Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...

 and Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, earning a doctorate in psychology. He made aliyah

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

 to Israel in 1962, and worked as a lecturer in psychology at Bar-Ilan University

Bar-Ilan University

Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...

 until 1968.

One of the leaders of the Gesher youth faction of the National Religious Party (NRP), he was director of the party's youth bureau, a member of its actions committee and directorate (which he also chaired), as well as being a member of the world secretariat of Mizrachi

Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)

The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...

 and Hapoel HaMizrachi

Hapoel HaMizrachi

Hapoel HaMizrachi |Mizrachi]] Workers) was a political party and settlement movement in Israel and is one of the predecessors of the National Religious Party.-History:...

.

He was on the NRP list for the 1969 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1969

Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK...

, but failed to win a seat. However, he entered the Knesset on 4 April 1971 as a replacement for his deceased father. He was re-elected in 1973

Israeli legislative election, 1973

The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...

, 1977

Israeli legislative election, 1977

The Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...

 and 1981

Israeli legislative election, 1981

Elections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat...

. In August 1981 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel

The Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The position is one of the most important in the Israeli cabinet after Prime Minister and Defense Minister...

. In May 1984 he and Zevulun Hammer

Zevulun Hammer

Zevulun Hammer was an Israeli politician, minister and Deputy Prime Minister.-Biography:Hammer was born in Haifa during the British Mandate of Palestine. He was an active member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement , and served in the Israeli Armored Corps in a Nahal programme...

 left the NRP to establish Gesher – Zionist Religious Centre, though both returned to the NRP two weeks later. He lost his seat in the July 1984 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1984

Elections for the eleventh Knesset were held in Israel on 23 July 1984. Voter turnout was 78.8%. The results saw the Alignment return to being the largest party in the Knesset, a status it had lost in 1977...

.

After leaving the Knesset Ben-Meir became a senior lecturer, and also studied law, later becoming a practising lawyer. In 1988 he left the NRP again and was amongst the founders of Meimad

Meimad

Meimad is a left-wing religious Zionist political party in Israel. Founded in 1999, it is based on the ideology of the Meimad movement founded in 1988 by Rabbi Yehuda Amital. At the national level, it was in alliance with the Labour Party, and until the 2006 elections, received 10th spot on the...

.

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