Shlomo Aviner

Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Hacohen Aviner (in Hebrew: שלמה חיים הכהן אבינר, born 1943/5703 as Claude Langenauer) is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, born in France. He is the rosh yeshiva of the Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva (formerly known as Ateret Cohanim) in Jerusalem, and the rabbi of Bet El. He is considered one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement.

Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Ha-Cohen Aviner was born in 1943 in German-occupied Lyon, France. As a child, he escaped the deportations to Nazi death camps, being hidden under a false identity. As a youth, he was active in the religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva in France, eventually becoming its National Director. He studied mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering at the Superior School of Electricity. At the age of 23, infused with the ideal of working the Land of Israel, Rav Aviner made aliyah to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, in the Beit She’an Valley of the Galil. He then went to learn at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav in Jerusalem, where he met Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah Ha-Cohen Kook, Rosh Yeshiva and son of Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Cohen Kook. Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah became his foremost teacher, and he became one of his “Talmidei Muvhak - leading students.” During this time, he also served as a soldier in Tzahal - the Israel Defense Forces, participating in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, earning the rank of Lieutenant. At the direction of his Rabbi, he joined a group that was settling Hebron and learned Torah there. In the year 1971, Rav Aviner became the Rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi in the Lower Galilee, where he spent half of his day working in the farm. In 1971, he left Lavi to serve as the Rabbi of Moshav Keshet in the Golan Heights. In 1981, he accepted the position of Rav of Beit El (Aleph), in the Binyamin region of the Shomron. Two years later, he also became the Rosh Yeshiva of the new-established Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim (formerly known as Ateret Cohanim). Located in the Old City of Yerushalayim, Rav Aviner’s yeshiva is the closest yeshiva to the Har Ha-Bayit - the Temple Mount. In its more than twenty-year history, Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim has produced rabbis, teachers, educators, and officers in Tzahal, while also promoting the building and settling of the city of Jerusalem.

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