Uri Orbach

Uri Orbach
Date of birth	28 March 1960
Place of birth	Petah Tikva, Israel
Date of death	16 February 2015 (aged 54)
Place of death	Jerusalem, Israel
Knessets	18, 19
Faction represented in Knesset
2009–2015	The Jewish Home
Ministerial roles
2013–2015	Minister of Pensioner Affairs

Uri Shraga Orbach (Hebrew: אורי שרגא אורבך‎; 28 March 1960 – 16 February 2015) was an Israeli Religious Zionist writer, journalist and politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home party and as Minister of Pensioner Affairs.

Biography

Orbach was born in Petah Tikva, Israel. He attended a Hesder yeshiva, and did his national service in Israel Defense Forces in the IDF Armored Corps, where he served as a Staff Sergeant. He later worked as a journalist, producing columns for Yedioth Ahronoth and serving as a co-host for the Army Radio mid-morning show 'The Last Word'. He also wrote several children's books, including Donkeys on the Roof and Other Stories, and a dictionary of Religious Zionist slang, My Grandfather Was a Rabbi, as well as founding and editing the popular Israeli children's magazines Otiot and Sukariot.

Prior to the 2009 elections, he joined the Jewish Home. Following a split in the party, in which several members left to re-establish the National Union party, he was placed third on the party's list,^[1] and entered the Knesset as it won three seats. For the 2013 elections he was placed sixth on the Jewish Home list,^[2] retaining his seat as the party won 12 seats. He was appointed Minister of Pensioner Affairs on 18 March 2013.

Orbach lived in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut with his wife and four children.

In January 2015, he took a leave of absence from politics for health reasons, to battle a chronic hematologic disease. In February 2015, his condition took a turn for the worse, and he died in the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on 16 February 2015.^[3][4] His seat in the Knesset was taken by Hillel Horowitz.

References

1. Jewish Home Knesset website (Hebrew)
2. Jewish Home blames Likud for leaking Gimpel video Times of Israel, 20 January 2013
3. Ex-Jewish Home minister Uri Orbach dies at 54 Times of Israel, 16 February 2015
4. Bayit Yehudi minister Uri Orbach dies at 54

External links

• Uri Orbach on the Knesset website