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
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