Biography
Neeman was born to a religious zionist family in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era. He was educated at the Midrashiat Noam high-school yeshiva and completed his military service in the Golani Brigade. He went on to study law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earning a LL.B in 1964. In 1965, he earned a LL.M from New York University, and in 1968, a LL.D. After returning to Israel, he opened his law firm in 1972, along with future president of Israel Chaim Herzog.
Neeman was appointed Director General of the Finance Ministry in 1979, serving until 1981. In June 1996 he was appointed to the Israeli cabinet as Minister of Justice by Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, despite not being a member of the Knesset. Two months later he resigned from the cabinet, after Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Neeman had tried to suborn a witness in the trial of MK Aryeh Deri. Neeman was eventually cleared of the charges. and returned to the cabinet in July 1997 as Minister of Finance until the end of the Netanyahu premiership at the 1999 elections.
In March 2009, following Netanyahu's return to power as Prime Minister of Israel, Neeman was again appointed as Justice Minister.
Neeman currently resides in Jerusalem in the Talbiya section. He is married and has six children.
Read more about this topic: Yaakov Neeman
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