Matan Kahana (; born 29 July 1972) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the

National Unity Party The National Unity Party, National United Party, Party of National Unity or National Unity Front may refer to: * National United Party of Afghanistan (founded 2003) * National Unity Party (Albania) * National United Party (Armenia), defunct * Natio ...

, New Right and

Yamina Yamina or Yemina (; ) was an Israeli political alliance of right-wing parties that originally included the New Right and the Union of Right-Wing Parties (a union of The Jewish Home and Tkuma). The final incarnation of the alliance included ...

. He also served as Minister of Religious Services. He was an officer in the IDF with the rank of colonel, who served as a combat soldier in

Sayeret Matkal Sayeret Matkal () (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262) (English: General Staff Reconnaissance Unit), is the special reconnaissance unit (''sayeret'') of Israel's General Staff (''matkal''). It is considered one of the premier special forces units of ...

, and as a fighter pilot in the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

. He was also a commander of a squadron of F-16s. After retiring from the army, he joined the New Right party, which is part of the Yamina alliance. In 2022 he joined the

National Unity Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...

alliance.

Biography

Kahana was born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

to Elia and Ora Cahana. When he was three months old, he moved with his family to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, following his father's electrical engineering and business administration studies. When he was three, the family returned to live in

Moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

Beit Gamliel Beit Gamliel (, lit. ''House of Gamliel'') is a religious moshav in central Israel. Located south-east of Yavne, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Yavne Regional Council. In , it had a population of . History The moshav was established i ...

. Kahana attended elementary school at

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Hafetz Haim Hafetz Haim (, ''lit.'' desirous of life) is a religious kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah, it falls under the jurisdiction of Nahal Sorek Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The land on which Hafetz Haim ...

(grades 1-8), and then at the Netiv Meir

Yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

. In his youth, he was a counselor in the

Bnei Akiva Bnei Akiva (, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929, advocating the values of Torah and labor. Bne ...

movement, in the branch in Moshav Beit Gamliel. He graduated with a BA in Law at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

. Kahana is married to Lisa, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology, and is the father of four children. He lives in the religious

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

Military career

Kahana was accepted to the Israeli Air Force Flight Academy and to the naval commando (

Shayetet 13 Shayetet 13 () is a naval commando unit of the Israeli Navy and one of the primary sayeret, reconnaissance units of the Israel Defense Forces. Shayetet 13 specializes in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage, maritime intelligence ...

), but signed a waiver to serve in

. He served as a combat soldier for three and a half years, and was in the same team with Naftali Benet and

Emmanuel Moreno Emmanuel Yehuda Moreno (; June 17, 1971 – August 19, 2006), was an Israeli Lieutenant Colonel in the Israel Defense Forces' most elite unit, Sayeret Matkal (also known as the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, or Unit 269), who died in combat ...

. In January 1994, when he finished his mandatory service, he joined the IAF Flight Academy and graduated a fighter pilot. He served as a fighter pilot in 116 Squadron. Throughout his service, he participated as a pilot in

Cast Lead Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

Operation Pillar of Defense In November 2012, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Pillar of Defense (, ''ʿAmúd ʿAnán'', literally: "Pillar of Cloud"), which was an eight-day campaign in the Governance of the Gaza Strip, Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, begi ...

, and the

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge (, ), and Battle of the Withered Grain (), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since ...

. He also participated as an F-16 pilot in the

Second Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

. Upon completion of his position as commander of the Valley Squadron, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and appointed the head of the division at the Air Force headquarters. In August 2018, he retired from the IDF after 25 years of service.

Political career

After his release from the IDF in 2018, Kahana served as director of the Diaspora Initiative at the Center for Educational Technology. On 10 January 2019, he announced that he was joining the New Right party, led by

Naftali Bennett Naftali Bennett (, ; born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician and businessman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the alternate prime minister from 1 July to 8 November 2022. Bennett was t ...

and

Ayelet Shaked Ayelet Shaked ( ; born 7 May 1976) is an Israeli former politician, activist, and Software engineering, software engineer. She served as Ministry of Interior (Israel), Minister of Interior from 2021 to 2022 and as Ministry of Justice (Israel), ...

. He placed fourth on the Knesset party list for the April 2019 Knesset

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

, but was not elected to the Knesset after his party narrowly failed to pass the election threshold. Ahead of the September 2019

, he was listed seventh on the

joint party list (on behalf of the New Right). The list won seven seats, and he was elected to the 22nd Knesset. In May 2022, he resigned from his post of the Religious Services Minister and stated he would return to the Knesset to serve as a Yamina MK, replacing MK Yomtob Kalfon. The move was meant to “help strengthen the coalition.” Following his resignation, Kahana was quickly made the Deputy Religious Services Minister while the coalition government attempted to have him appointed back to his former post through a vote in the Knesset. This was however scuttled by rebel Yamina MK

Idit Silman Idit Silman (; born 27 October 1980) is an Israeli politician who currently serves as the Minister of Environmental Protection. Silman previously served as a member of the Knesset for Likud from 2022 to 2023, for Yamina from 2021 to 2022, and f ...

, who voted with the opposition. In August 2022, Kahana decided to leave Yamina for the

alliance. Kahana's term as the Deputy Religious Services Minister came to an end on 16 August, when the legal mandate for Bennett, who was serving as the acting minister of the department, came to an end after three months. The party announced on 1 July 2025 that Kahana would leave the party and resign his seat in the Knesset. Kahana confirmed the same day that he is "in touch" with Bennett. He left the Knesset in July 2025 and was replaced by Yael Ron Ben-Moshe.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kahana, Matan 1972 births Living people Bar-Ilan University alumni Israeli Air Force personnel Israeli colonels Israeli military aviators Israeli Orthodox Jews Israeli soldiers Jewish Israeli politicians Members of the 22nd Knesset (2019–2020) Members of the 23rd Knesset (2020–2021) Members of the 24th Knesset (2021–2022) Members of the 25th Knesset (2022–) Government ministers of Israel Ministers of religious affairs of Israel New Right (Israel) politicians Military personnel from Haifa Politicians from Haifa Yamina politicians Israeli expatriates in the United States