Rabbi Eliezer Waldman
Rabbi Eliezer WaldmanYeshivat Nir

Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, Rosh Yeshivat Nir in Kiryat Arba, has passed away.

His funeral will take place today at 12:30 from the Nir Yeshiva building in Kiryat Arba to the ancient cemetery in Hebron.

On the eve of Sukkot, Rabbi Waldman fell in his home in Kiryat Arba and was injured. He was hospitalized for several days and from there was transferred to rehabilitation at Herzog Medical Center.

After about a month and a half of rehabilitation, he recuperated and was welcomed back with happiness at the Nir Yeshiva. Together with Rabbi Noam Waldman, the head of the yeshiva and the son of Rabbi Waldman, his students accompanied him to his home singing and dancing.

About two weeks ago, the rabbi was hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, and since then many prayers were offered for his recovery.

Although born in Petach Tikva, Rabbi Waldman was raised in the United States where he studied at Chaim Berlin Yeshiva. After returning to Israel, he studied at Kerem BeYavne Yeshiva and then at Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem where he became close to Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, even living in his home for a while. He was also a close friend of Rabbi Chaim Druckman with whom he continued to study Torah once a week through the years.

He was one of the founders of the Or Etzion Yeshiva and served as a rabbi there. Following the Six-Day War, he was one of the pioneers who renewed the Jewish community in Hebron and, from 1972, founded and headed the Nir Hesder Yeshiva.

Rabbi Waldman was a partner in the founding of Gush Emunim and an MK for the Techiya party in the 11th and 12th Knessets. Over the years, he served as a member of the World Secretariat of the Bnei Akiva movement and later as a member of the national administration.

The chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, MK Bezalel Smotrich, paid tribute to the late Rabbi Waldman. "I weep with all of the House of Israel over the ascension to heaven of the head of the Nir Yeshiva, among the renewers of the Jewish community in Hebron, Rabbi Elierzer Waldman. A Torah scholar with a radiating countenance, among the great students of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook and one of the faithful purveyors of the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook for decades. Condolences to his thousands upon thousands of students and dear family. May we find comfort in the continued building of the Torah in the Land of Israel.."