Biography
Born in Kharkiv in the Soviet Union (today Ukraine), Elkin was active in the Bnei Akiva movement, becoming its general secretary of the Soviet Union branch in 1990. In December that year he immigrated to Israel.
He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining a BA in history and mathematics in 1994 and an MA in history in the same year. Later Ze'ev Elkin was involved in academic Jewish and medieval studies, in particular, studied the works of Saadia Gaon, and was involved in Jewish education in the countries of former Soviet Union.
Elkin was elected to the 17th Knesset in 2006 as a member of Kadima and chaired the subcommittee on the absorption of immigrant children and youth. In November 2008 he decided to quit Kadima, as he considered it to have become a left-wing party. He subsequently joined Likud, and won twentieth place on its list for the 2009 elections. He retained his seat as Likud won 27 mandates.
Elkin, who also serves as chairman for the government coalition, released an election video for his Likud primaries campaign in November 2012 which went viral, earning 250,000 views in only a matter of days.
In modern Hebrew, "to be an Elkin" has come to mean to be a backbench politician who is more active legislatively than high profile politicians, but whose legislative efforts are damaging in the long run.
Read more about this topic: Ze'ev Elkin
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)