Dov Lipman

Dov Lipman
M.K. Rabbi Dov Lipman
Date of birth	(1971-09-09) 9 September 1971
Place of birth	Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Year of aliyah	2004
Knessets	19
Faction represented in Knesset
2013–2015	Yesh Atid

Dov Alan Lipman (Hebrew: דב אלן ליפמן‎, born 9 September 1971) is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid between 2013 and 2015.

Biography

Dov Lipman was born in Washington, DC on September 9, 1971. He grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland where he attended the Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington and the Yeshiva of Greater Washington where he was captain of the varsity basketball team and president of the student council. He also served as an intern for United States Congressman John Dingell. After high school, Dov studied at Mercaz HaTorah in Jerusalem for two years including during the Gulf War where he was in charge of the yeshiva's sealed room. Lipman continued his studies at Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland where he received rabbinic ordination while studying at Johns Hopkins University where he received a Masters in Education. ^[1]

Dov and his wife, Dena, were among the founding families of the Cincinnati Community Kollel. They spent three years in Cincinnati before moving back to Silver Spring where Rabbi Lipman became a teacher of Judaic Studies at his alma mater, the Yeshiva of Greater Washington. During these years, he published his first book, "DISCOVER: Answers for Teenagers (and Adults) to Questions about the Jewish Faith."

In July 2004, the Lipman family made aliyah ^[2] and moved to Bet Shemesh ^[3] where Dov taught in post high school yeshivot and seminaries - Yesodei HaTorah, Machon Maayan, Tiferet and Reishit Yerushalayim. During these years he wrote two additional works: "TIME-OUT: Sports Stories as a Game Plan for Spiritual Success" and "SEDER SAVVY: Essays for Meaningful Family Discussion."

Tensions between other religious elements and the broader population in the city brought Lipman into community activism and he led the battle against the extremism, most notably during the beginning of the 2011 school year at the Orot girls school.

In December 2012, Yair Lapid named Lipman number 17 on the list for Knesset of his new Yesh Atid party. ^[4] The party won 19 seats in the January 22, 2013 elections and Lipman was elected to Knesset - the first American-born member in nearly 30 years. Israeli law required him to renounce his American citizenship to serve in the Knesset, so he renounced his United States citizenship.^[5]

During the 19th Knesset, Lipman served on the Finance Committee, the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, the Knesset House Committee and the special committee for the legislation drafting the ultra-Orthodox into military and national service. He chaired the Knesset task force to help chareidim (the ultra-Orthodox) enter the work force, the Knesset task force for dialogue between religious and secular, and held the party's portfolio for the environment, public health, and preventing the suffering of animals. Lipman also headed the Knesset's delegation to the parliaments of South Africa and England. He took part in diplomatic missions to South Africa (including attending Nelson Mandela's funeral), England, Germany, Hungary, and the United States.

His fourth book, "To Unify a Nation: My vision for the future of Israel," with approbations from President Shimon Peres, Yair Lapid, and Natan Sharansky, was published in 2014.

At the conclusion of the 19th Knesset, Lipman was honored by the Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, as the MK with the best attendance in the plenum and highest number of votes.

Since losing his Knesset seat in the March 2015 elections, ^[6] Lipman has continued his public work as the Chairman of Anglo and Diaspora Affairs for the Yesh Atid party. He hosts a weekly radio show on Voice of Israel called "One Nation with Dov Lipman," serves as a political correspondent for i24news, and writes columns for the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel.

Views

Lipman advocates basic secular education for all schools in Israel wanting to receive government funding, increased employment opportunities for those among the Orthodox population who want to join the work force and some form of national service, be it military or social, for every citizen. He believes his task is to be "a conduit of tolerance and acceptance" between the Haredi and secular world.^[7]

In the wake of Lipman's argument that Haredi boys' schools in Israel should teach math and English, Rabbi Aharon Feldman, the dean of the rabbinical college Lipman attended, called him a "wicked apostate."^[8] He later retracted that statement, describing him as an "unintentional sinner."^[9]

In November 2014 rabbinic students who were visiting the Knesset were denied access to the Knesset Synagogue because they are not Orthodox. Rabbi Joel Levy, director of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, said he had submitted the request on behalf of the students and saw their shock when the request was denied. He noted, "paradoxically, this decision served as an appropriate end to our conversation about religion and state in Israel.” MK Dov Lipman expressed the concern that many Knesset workers are unfamiliar with non-Orthodox and American practices and would view "an egalitarian service in the synagogue as an affront." ^[10]

References

External links

• Dov Lipman on the Knesset website