page_title: Shlomo Aviner
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Shlomo Aviner / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Rabbi Shlomo Aviner with Rabbi Eyal Karim
context_page_description: Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Hacohen Aviner is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, born in France. He is the rosh yeshiva of the Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva in Jerusalem, and the rabbi of Bet El. He is considered one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement.
context_section_description: Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Ha-Cohen Aviner was born in 1943 in German-occupied Lyon, France. As a child, he escaped the deportations to Nazi death camps, being hidden under a false identity. As a youth, he was active in the religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva, in France, eventually becoming its National Director. He studied mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering at the Superior School of Electricity. 
  At the age of 23, infused with the ideal of working the Land of Israel, Rav Aviner made aliyah to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, near Beit She'an. He then went to learn at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem, where he met Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the Rosh Yeshiva and son of Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook. Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah became his foremost teacher, and Aviner became one of his leading students. During this time, he also served as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, participating in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, earning the rank of Lieutenant. At the direction of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, he joined a group that was settling Hebron, and learned Torah there. 
  In the year 1971, Rav Aviner became the rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi in the Lower Galilee, where he spent half of his day working in the farm. A number of years later, he left Lavi to serve as the Rabbi of Moshav Keshet in the Golan Heights. 
  In 1981, he accepted the position of rabbi of Beit El (Aleph), in the Binyamin region of the Shomron. Two years later, he also became the Rosh Yeshiva of the new-established Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim (formerly known as Ateret Cohanim). Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, Rav Aviner's yeshiva is the yeshiva closest to Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount). In its more than twenty-year history, Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim has produced rabbis, teachers, educators, and officers in the Israel Defense Forces, while also promoting the building and settling of the city of Jerusalem.
caption: Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (r.) with Rabbi Eyal Karim
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SX500 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2017:05:22 18:39:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "246", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "4938", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5620", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5787", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity and Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:05:22 18:39:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:05:22 18:39:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "125/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6751/500", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4608", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3072", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4608", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3072", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "4860", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2304000/121", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1728000/91", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": ""}