Michael Melchior

Rabbi Michael Melchior (מיכאל מלכיאור, born 31 January 1954) is a Danish-Norwegian rabbi, an Israeli politician and leader of the left-wing religious party Meimad, which he represents in the Knesset.

Background

Rabbi Michael Melchior comes from Denmark where for seven generations his family members have served as Chief Rabbis. He studied at Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem and in 1980 received rabbinic ordination after which he returned to Scandinavia to serve as Chief Rabbi of the Norwegian Jewish Community.

In 1986, Rabbi Melchior moved to Israel where amongst other activities, he served as International Relations Director for the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Nine years later, when Israel's Prime-minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by a religious extremist, Rabbi Melchior decided to extend his drive for high ethical standards from the synagogue to national politics. In 1996, he was selected as Chairman of Meimad's Executive Committee and three years later, he was elected to the Knesset as Meimad's representative on Ehud Barak's "One Israel" list. In July 1999, he was appointed Minister for Israeli Society and the World Jewish Community.He resumed these responsibilities during the first Sharon government, while serving as Deputy foreign Minister. In the second Sharon government,Rabbi Melchior served as a Deputy Minister for Education, and later as Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's office, in charge of Jewish diaspora and Israeli society affairs. Rabbi Melchior returned to being an opposition member MK when the labour resigned the government. On the 17th Knesset, May 2006, He was elected as Chairman of the Knesset committee for Education, Culture and Sports.

Areas of activity

Rabbi Melchior takes particular interest in the social fabric of Israeli Society which he believes must be built on the basis of tolerance, equal rights and equal opportunities. To this end, Rabbi Melchior actively guides the Committee for Education, Culture and Sports; previously chaired the Knesset Committee for the Rights of the Child during the 16th session of the Knesset. Recognizing that religious extremism and the tensions between religious and secular Jews are deeply damaging to Israeli Society, Rabbi Melchior launched Moe'tzet Yachad; a forum which promotes dialogue and understanding between different strands in Israeli society. He has also established 'Meitarim' a network of Orthodox Jewish schools whose open, democratic ethos enables religious and secular students to study their heritage together. Rabbi Melchior does not restrict his activities to the Jewish population of Israel. He passionately believes that building bridges with the local Israeli-Arab and Palestinian populations is central to the preservation of our Jewish values and essential to our shared future in the Middle East. Rabbi Melchior, therefore, serves as Co-Chair of the Knesset Caucus for Jewish-Arab relations and he established Citizen's Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel which campaigns for coexistence between the two peoples and the correction of injustices against Israel's Arab minority. Recognizing that much of the tension between Jews and Muslims has its roots in religious prejudice and ignorance, Rabbi Melchior with the support of world religious leaders initiated the Alexandria Declaration in which the religious leaders of all the major communities in the Holy Land agreed to work towards peaceful resolution of conflicts. Rabbi Melchior is heavily involved in the realization of this vision and has forged partnerships with leading religious and political figures in the Muslim community to establish the Mosaica Center for interfaith dialogue in Israel.

Through his career in the rabbinate, his leading role in the campaign for Soviet Jewry and his ongoing connection to the global Jewish people, Rabbi Melchior has gained enormous insight into the concerns and workings of Diaspora Jewish communities. It was therefore natural for him to be invited to take up the portfolio of Diaspora affairs in three successive governments. This places him in the forefront of the international fight against anti-Semitism, the restitution of the property of Holocaust victims and the campaign to maintain close relations between the Diaspora and the State of Israel. His love of Israel and his deep connection to the world Jewish community led him to be amongst the pioneers of the concept of the Birthright Trips to Israel and from their inception, he has chaired the Birthright steering committee. This organization has over the last five years brought tens of thousands of young unaffiliated Jews to explore their heritage in Israel, causing many of them to revaluate their Jewish identity and take up leading positions within the Jewish community.

Rabbi Melchior brings his religious leadership and political influence to bear on many other issues including his work as chair of the Knesset caucus on the environment, activity on behalf of Agunot and efforts to resolve the problems of conversion which effect Jewish communities around the world. Rabbi Melchior recently coalesced all of his interests in the establishment of Tenufa; a mass movement for social change in Israel whose launch was attended by 5,000 people.

Rabbi Melchior is a recipient of Norway's Prize for Tolerance and Bridge-Building win the Nobel Institute, the Church of England's Coventry Peace Prize for his contribution to world peace, and 'The Marc and Henia Liebhaber Prize for the Promotion of Religious Tolerance and Cultural Pluralism in Israel' for the year 2007. Alongside his ministerial responsibilities, he also serves as the Rabbi of a young and active Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem and is actively involved in the Norwegian Jewish Community where he still holds the honorary position of Chief Rabbi.

Rabbi Melchior is married to Hanna, an occupational therapist and is the father to five children.

Political career

Melchior became involved in the politics when the Meimad party was formed shortly before the 1999 elections from the movement founded by Yehuda Amital in 1988. The party joined Labour (with which it was friendly, Amital having served as a non-parliamentary minister under Shimon Peres in the early 1990s) and Gesher in forming an alliance called One Israel.

The alliance won 26 seats, with Melchior taking the one reserved for Meimad. He was appointed Minister of Social and Diaspora Affairs in Ehud Barak's government. After Barak lost a special election for Prime Minister to Ariel Sharon in 2001, Melchior lost his post, but was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, though he lost his new job in November 2002 when Labour pulled out of the national unity government Sharon had formed.

He was re-elected to the Knesset in the 2003 elections as Meimad's sole representative, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport when Labour joined the coalition government in January 2005. In June 2006 he became Deputy Minister of Social and Diaspora Affairs, but again lost his position when Labour pulled out of the coalition.

He retained his seat again in the 2006 elections and currently chairs the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee and the Social-Environmental lobby in the Knesset.

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