Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Shach

(1898 - )

Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Shach was born in Lithuania in 1898, where at the age of 7 he left his parents’ home to study in the greatest yeshivot in Lithuania. In 1941, he immigrated to Jerusalem, where he taught in several yeshivot until he headed the famous Ponevich Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. He encouraged the formation of the Sephardi ultra religious party Shas before the elections to the 11th Knesset in 1984. In 1988, Shach formed an additional Ashkenazi ultra-religious party, Degel Hatorah. Shach is opposed to Zionism.