Incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Chikli late Wednesday night and informed him of the new role he will begin on Thursday.
MK Amichai Chikli (Likud) will be Israel’s next Diaspora Affairs Minister who will also be the Social Equality Minister in the incoming government that is expected to be inaugurated on Thursday.
Incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Chikli late Wednesday night and informed him of the new role he will begin on Thursday. Chikli, an educator and thought leader, wouldn’t compromise only on the Diaspora Affairs Ministry since he was also seeking a platform to create political support in the Likud party and therefore felt that a ministry with influence on social issues in Israel would assist his political endeavors.
The 41-year-old politician has been through a dramatic rollercoaster since he was first elected to the Knesset in 2021 in the Yamina party headed by Naftali Bennett. In May 2021, he announced that in accordance with the party’s commitments prior to the elections, he would oppose a government on the basis of a rotation between Yamina and Yair Lapid with participation of Meretz and the Joint List. He is an Israeli educator, social entrepreneur, and the founder of the Tavor Zionist Leadership Academy. He voted against the decisions of the government and left the party later on, finally joining the Likud Party.
Amichai Chikli’s background
Chikli is a member of Kibbutz Hannaton, which was established by the Conservative movement and the Jewish Agency. He is the son of Conservative Rabbi Eitan Chikli, who is the president of the Jewish University in Mexico and was one of the leading rabbis in Israel. Chikli was a member of the Social Leadership Institute and afterward served in the Golani Brigade and the Shayetet 13 naval unit as well as becoming a company commander in the Egoz unit. He earned a master’s degree in diplomacy and security from Tel Aviv University.
He established the Tavor Academy for Social Leadership in Nazareth Illit in 2010, as a pre-army mechina.
He is married to Hadas, a school psychologist in Nahalal, and they have three children. “The family also adopted a lone soldier from the United States whose family lives abroad, during the course of her studies and military service,” it is stated on his official page of the Knesset.
“I am happy that in the choice between a short long path and a long short path, I chose the latter,” Chikli told The Jerusalem Post in June about being the first “rebel” of the outgoing government, citing a story from the Talmud. “I don’t see what I have done as defeating Naftali Bennett but as bringing victory to Zionism. There are a lot more obstacles to pass, but we are on the way there.”
“I am very worried about what is happening on the campuses,” he told the Post. “It is heartbreaking to see Jewish young people who concede their connections to their people and their heritage in order to connect to the latest fashionable movement that they are calling woke.”
“A family who wants to pray at the Kotel needs to have a place to go that is not only for men or women, so the Ezrat Israel is an important solution,” he said. “It’s important to do it in coordination with the haredim and not behind their backs by people who say they want to put them in the trash [a reference to Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman]. I respect haredim, and haredim should respect secular people, too.”
He shared with the Post that Israelis don’t understand the huge differences between Reform and Conservative Jews: “In Israel, Reform and Conservative are seen as the same,” he said. “But the Reform in Israel took the wrong direction,” he said, adding that “the Reform movement has identified itself with the radical Left’s false accusations that the settlers are violent, so they have earned criticism against them and I cannot identify with them. They are going back to their roots in Germany of anti-Zionism and anti-nationalism. It’s a tragedy that they are going there. They are anti-nationalist, and it’s important for them to wake up.”
Even though he is a member of a Conservative Kibbutz and an alum of a Conservative summer camp, he doesn’t define himself as Conservative.
“I went to [Camp] Ramah and Noam [youth group], but I never defined myself as Conservative and part of that movement,” he said “I see myself as a Jew who keeps tradition. I have no problem with them [the Conservative movement]. I respect it and don’t worry about it or see it as negative.”
In an interview to Makor Rishon newspaper in 2021, Chikli shared that he is worried about the state of American Jewry: “People who live and breathe American Jewry say that the community there has died,” he said and added that “it is a bit like a sinking luxury ship: it still makes a lot of noise, but it won’t prevent relegation… In my eyes, it’s a tragedy. But I don’t look at them and say ‘hey, we won’. I say: ‘hey, we lost.’”
He also mentioned American-Jewish left-wing journalist Peter Beinart in his interview, speaking about progressive Judaism. “Think of Peter Beinart, with all the filth and slander he spreads about Israel. In my opinion, some of Reform Judaism – the progressives and organizations like IfNotNow – are alienating themselves from their own people. It used to be difficult to be Jewish, so they made their Judaism easier; today it is difficult to be a Zionist, so they say to themselves: We’ll go to the other side, where it is more convenient.”
“The term Conservative is a kind of curse word in Israel and they [Conservative Israeli Jews] don’t deserve it. They are bound by Halacha. Their prayer is indeed without a separation between men and women, but is that why we will declare that everyone who belongs to the Conservative movement is an enemy of Judaism and of the people? To think that there are those who think it’s okay to beat them [Conservative Jews]? This situation is very sad.”In the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, he will replace Dr. Nachman Shai, who is more than 30 years older than him. He will lead the activities of the ministry that has projects worth NIS hundreds of millions.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post