Rabbi Meir Kahane

Biography of Rabbi Meir Kahane, zt"l

(1932-1990)

Rabbi Meir Kahane zt"l was born in New York City in 1932. He learned at the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, where he received his rabbinic ordination in 1956. He graduated from New York Law School that same year, and thereafter obtained a masters degree in International Relations from New York University.

After serving as a congregational rabbi in the Howard Beach section of New York City, Rabbi Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League in 1968 in order to combat the rise in antisemitism and to fight for the freedom of Soviet Jews. His campaign of activism ultimately led to the emigration of tens of thousands of oppressed Jews from the Soviet Union, and his no-nonsense approach to anti-Jewish violence was effective in protecting Jewish neighborhoods from hooliganism and in ensuring Jewish rights. Deeply concerned about the alienation and assimilation of Jewish youth, Rabbi Kahane spent much of his time touring American college campuses, exhorting Jewish students to learn more about Judaism, to make aliyah to Israel, and to stand up proudly as Jews.

Rabbi Kahane emigrated to Israel in 1971, and there he founded the Israeli chapter of the Jewish Defense League. He founded the Kach political party shortly thereafter, and ran for the Israeli Knesset in 1976 and 1980. After his 1980 Knesset bid, Rabbi Kahane was jailed by the Israeli government under an unprecedented administrative detention order that imprisoned him without trial, without his being informed of any specific charge, and without opportunity to know or to question any alleged evidence or witnesses. His true crime - his public outcry concerning the very real danger that Israel's large and growing Arab population poses to the State of Israel and its Jews. Israeli government harrassment of Rabbi Kahane and his family continued until his death.

In 1984, Rabbi Kahane was successful in winning his first Knesset seat . He worked tirelessly as a Member of Knesset in proposing legislation aimed at protecting the Jewish character of the State of Israel, the physical safety of Jews in Israel, and the security of the State itself. With the 1988 Israeli elections looming, his Kach party was poised for a major election victory. Every major pre-election poll predicted that Rabbi Kahane's Kach party would win between 8 and 13 seats in the Knesset, which would have made Kach the 3rd largest political party in Israel. Shortly before the elections, and in a move unprecedented in Israel, the sitting Knesset voted to ban Rabbi Kahane from running for political office. It was a stunning blow to Israeli democracy, and one from which Israel has yet to recover. This infamous Knesset vote, upheld by Israel's High Court of Justice in a stunning display of legal cowardice, served to deny a large segment of the Israeli populace its right to vote for the candidate of its choice.

In 1987, Rabbi Kahane founded the Yeshiva of The Jewish Idea in Jerusalem. His stated goal was to produce Jewish leaders capable of acting and reacting Jewishly to the problems and challenges facing the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea continues to turn out exceptional rabbis and learned scholars, most of whom are active in spreading Torah values and in working on behalf of the Jewish people.

Rabbi Kahane wrote a regular column in The Jewish Press, appearing weekly from 1961 to 1990. In addition, he authored fifteen full-length books in English and Hebrew on Jewish subjects of interest. Many of these books are still available for sale, and most can be found in American public and university libraries. Rabbi Kahane was assassinated in New York City in 1990.

This biography was obtained from the website of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea