Summary
Uri Elitzur, son of Professor Yehuda Elitzur, a Gush Emunim activist of the founding generation whose Appendix 3 biography traces his path from Merkaz HaRav and Ofra through Tehiya and Morasha back to the National Religious Party, where he took charge of information and propaganda (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel).
Details
- Raised in a religious Jerusalem household and educated in the state religious school system, Elitzur studied for three years at Merkaz HaRav in the mid-1960s, interrupted his studies for Nahal service, and took a university degree in mathematics and work as a teacher; resentment at perceived discrimination against religious soldiers, the trauma of the Yom Kippur War and shock at photographs of West Bank settlers manhandled by soldiers led him and his wife to join Gush Emunim in summer 1974 and move to Ofra (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Appendix 3, lines 10052-10262).
- He worked hard for the National Religious Party in the 1977 elections, was bitterly disappointed by its support of the Camp David accords, helped form Tehiya with his former roommate Hanan Porat (eleventh on its 1981 list while working in Amana), was a major force in the Movement to Halt the Retreat in Sinai, spent a year in meditative study after Yamit, became one of Amana’s two general secretaries, left Tehiya with Porat for Druckman’s Morasha, and rejoined the National Religious Party (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Appendix 3, lines 10052-10262).
- Elitzur is named among the Gush personalities who returned to important positions in the National Religious Party under Hammer in 1986, and Appendix 3 gives his party role as in charge of information and propaganda (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 6, lines 8237-8330; Appendix 3, lines 10052-10262).
- In Part 3’s reading, Uri Elitzur appears as the author of the fifty-year project of persuading Amos Oz, in the consensus-builder current of Chapter 5 (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5619-6118).
- His biography is sourced to Hagai Segel, “A Man For All Seasons”, Nekuda, no.110, May 27, 1987, pp.26-29, 55 (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Appendix 3, lines 10052-10262).
Related pages
For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Yehuda Elitzur, Gush Emunim, Tehiya, Amana, Hanan Porat