Yitzhak Peretz - Biography

Rabbi Yitzhak Haim Peretz (born 26 March 1938) is a former Israeli politician who held several ministerial portfolios during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Biography

Born in Casablanca in Morocco, Peretz made aliyah to Israel in 1950. He studied in yeshivas in Pardes Hana and Jerusalem and a kollel in Petah Tikva, before being ordained as a rabbi. He served as chief rabbi of Ra'anana from 1962 until 1984.

In 1984 Peretz became the leader of the new Sephardic Haredi Shas party, and in the elections that year he won a seat in the Knesset. The party joined the national unity government, and Peretz was appointed Minister without Portfolio. On 24 December 1984 he became Minister of Internal Affairs, but resigned in January 1987 in protest at the Supreme Court ordering him to recognise a woman who underwent a Reform Judaism conversion as Jewish, stating that "The High Court of Justice demanded that I list a non-Jew as a Jew". On 25 May he rejoined the government as a Minister without Portfolio.

Following the 1988 elections he was appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption. On 25 December 1990 he left Shas and founded a new faction, Moria, though he remained a member of the cabinet.

Prior to the 1992 elections he joined United Torah Judaism. However, three days after retaining his seat, he resigned from the Knesset.

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