Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz ( he, שלמה לורינץ; 5 March 1918 – 19 October 2009) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the
Knesset
The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...
for
Agudat Yisrael
Agudat Yisrael ( he, אֲגוּדָּת יִשְׂרָאֵל, lit., ''Union of Israel'', also transliterated ''Agudath Israel'', or, in Yiddish, ''Agudas Yisroel'') is a Haredi Jewish political party in Israel. It began as a political party re ...
from 1951 until 1984, and a close confidant of many
gedolim.
Biography
Born in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, between 1933 and 1935, he studied with Rabbi
Yaakov Yechezkiya Greenwald at the Papa Yeshiva in Hungary. In late 1935, he went to Poland to study at the
Mir Yeshiva. He then returned to Hungary and from there Lorincz made
aliyah to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
in 1939, and was involved in
illegal immigration of Jews from Hungary. In his youth, he was involved in the radical underground organisation
Brit HaKanaim
Brit HaKanaim (Hebrew: בְּרִית הַקַנַאִים, lit. ''Covenant of the Zealots'') was a radical Jewish underground organization which operated in Israel between 1950 and 1953, in opposition to the widespread trend of secularization i ...
, which sought to establish a
Halakhic state
A halachic state ( he, מדינת הלכה, ''Medinat Halakha'') is a Jewish state governed by ''halakha'', Jewish religious law.
Public opinion
An opinion poll released in March 2016 by the Pew Research Center found high support for a halach ...
in Israel by imposing Jewish religious law in the country. In 1949, he was amongst the founders of moshav
Komemiyut, and later helped found two youth villages:
Sde Hemed (now a moshav) and Hazon Yehezkel (now named
Aluma).
Shlomo Lorincz: Public Activities
Knesset website In 1956, he helped found the Housing and Development company of Agudat Yisrael.
He was first elected to the Knesset in 1951 on the Agudat Yisrael list. He was re-elected in 1955 as part of the Religious Torah Front list (an alliance of Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael). He was re-elected again in 1959, 1961, 1965, 1969, 1973, 1977, and 1981. Between 1974 and 1984 he chaired the Finance Committee. Much Israeli paper currency bears his signature.
As a young man, Rabbi Lorincz became a close confidant to some of the generation's most prominent Torah personalities, including the Chazon Ish
Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (7 November 1878 – 24 October 1953), also known as the Chazon Ish () after his magnum opus, was a Belarusian-born Orthodox rabbi who later became one of the leaders of Haredi Judaism in Israel, where he spent his ...
, Rav Shach, and the Brisker Rov. He later compiled memoirs of these times in his book, ''B'Mechitzasam''.
References
External sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorincz, Shlomo
1918 births
2009 deaths
Rabbis from Budapest
Hungarian emigrants to Israel
Haredi rabbis in Israel
Agudat Yisrael politicians
Religious Torah Front politicians
Members of the 2nd Knesset (1951–1955)
Members of the 3rd Knesset (1955–1959)
Members of the 4th Knesset (1959–1961)
Members of the 5th Knesset (1961–1965)
Members of the 6th Knesset (1965–1969)
Members of the 7th Knesset (1969–1974)
Members of the 8th Knesset (1974–1977)
Members of the 9th Knesset (1977–1981)
Members of the 10th Knesset (1981–1984)
Rabbinic members of the Knesset