United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Litzman said on Sunday he will not run in any upcoming election.
“If there are new elections, I won’t be running,” Litzman told the Knesset channel in an interview. “I’m not going to the Knesset again. At my age — 74 — I’ve served in the Knesset for more than 23 years.”
Litzman clarified that it has nothing to do with the criminal investigations into his behavior, and claims that he has “no plea deal” lined up.
The pending charges relate to suspicions that he used his former position as Deputy Minister of Health to prevent the extradition of Malka Leifer to Australia. Leifer was a principal of a Frum girls school in Melbourne who was accused of assaulting minors.
Yaakov Litzman was born in Germany in 1948.
He served as Director of the Beis Yaakov in Jerusalem and initiated the project to set up Chereidi residential neighborhoods in Ashdod, Tel Aviv, Arad, and Beit Shemesh. He is married and the father of three children.
A Member of Knesset since 1999, he served as Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee. He also served as a member of the State Control, Internal Affairs and Environment, Science and Technology, and Labor, Welfare, and Health Committees. He also served as chairman of his party’s parliamentary group in the Knesset.
In April 2009 Litzman was appointed Deputy Minister of Health, serving until February 2013. In May 2015 he was again appointed Deputy Minister of Health and in September 2015 was sworn in as Minister of Health.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
I think Rivka Ravitz should be MK in his place
Hopefully someone else with the full respect of the Yahadut HaTorah at large can be found to replace him. He lost a lot of the respect he commanded in his earlier years. He was a great public servant until…
Honesty and integrity by Torah standards is so important; now more than ever!
his role protecting malka leifer and getting special privileges for the gerrer rebbe, should give him a long term sentence in ,,,,
Dr Yidd
Please learn Chofetz Chaim and Hilchos Malshinim
YWN how can you publish comments that are against the torah?
y2r, 1) devarim sheh’yodim ha’kol. 2) hibadlu mitoch ha’ra’ah hazot. 3) mitzvah le’pharsaim mechale’lai haShem.
Good riddance to this UT political hack. He has been a disaster at every job he has held, especially his incompetent management of the health care system which he knew nothing about and seemed to be making decisions based entirely on what he had been told to do by others. Combine his incompetence with his alleged criminal activities and you wonder why he wasn’t fired or jailed years ago. The UT has many younger and more educated and technically experienced candidates from which to select to serve in public office.
Dr. Yidd 1) devarim hayeduim lakol is not a heter when you try to shame someone more 2)Litzman is not an apikores or Mechalel Shabbos. 3) Invoking accusations and enmity of the secular is not a chillul Hashem. Your comments are definitely one hundred percent Loshon Hora/ Motzi Shem Ra with absolutely no mitigating leniencies at all.
ahavatisroel, you are wrong for the reasons I specified. litzman is a walking hillul haShem; his defense of Leifer should be enough to never be accepted in any normal society. he cannot be shamed more; he is already in his own class of ousvoorf.
יעקב Litzman is a צדיק גמור who has dedicated his life & time to helping the ציבור at large, and helping advance religion in an antagonistic environment, so how dare anyone even so much as dare say 1 comment against this righteous individual.
May יעקב Litzman merit to enjoy many happy Golden years.