Yehuda Getz

Yehuda Getz
Born	1924 Tunis, Tunisia
Died	17 September 1995 Jerusalem, Israel
Title	Rabbi

Yehuda Getz (born 1924 in Tunis, Tunisia—died 17 September 1995 in Jerusalem) was the rabbi of the Western Wall for 27 years.^[1][2][3]

Biography

Yehuda Meir Getz was born in Tunisia in 1924. He immigrated to Israel in 1949, settling in Kerem Ben Zimra, a moshav in Upper Galilee.^[1] He joined the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.^[1]

Getz died of a heart attack on 17 September 1995.^[3] He was survived by his wife and six children, and is buried on the Mount of Olives.^[2][4]

Rabbinic career

After the death of his son Avner in the Six-Day War, he moved to Jerusalem's Old City.^[1] Shortly afterwards he was appointed as overseer of prayers at the Western Wall.^[3]

He served as the head of the Beit El Kabbalist yeshiva from 1973 to 1995.^[5]

Getz was a supporter of Excavations at the Temple Mount.^[6] In July 1981, Getz and a team of associates opened a tunnel under the Temple Mount near where he believed the Ark of the Covenant had been hidden in Solomon's Temple, directly below the Holy of Holies of the Second Temple.^[7]

References

1. Finklestone, Joseph (4 November 1995). "OBITUARY: Rabbi Yehuda Meir Getz". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
2. "Rabbi Yehuda Getz". Scotland Herald. 21 September 1995. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
3. "Obituaries - Yehuda Meir Getz, Western Wall's Rabbi, 71". New York Times. 25 September 1995. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
4. "Rabbi Yehuda M. Getz; Overseer of Western Wall". Los Angeles Times. 19 September 1995. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
5. Shragai, Nadav. "A rabbi, an officer and a mystic". Israel Hayom. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
6. Shragai, Nadav (25 April 2003). "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Haaretz. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
7. Hasson, Nir (24 April 2011). "Jerusalem's time tunnels". Haaretz. Retrieved 10 January 2012.