In 2014, Tanya died of cancer at the age of 63. Tanya and Yuli Edelstein had two children together. After immigrating to Israel, she worked as a civil engineer at the Civil Aviation Authority. They met in the Soviet Union when she attended a Hebrew class he was teaching. He was married to Tatiana (Tanya) Edelstein, who was a Zionist activist, for 33 years. Personal lifeĪfter leaving Alon Shvut, Edelstein moved to Neve Daniel, another settlement in the West Bank. Edelstein said that Sanders should 'stop talking nonsense'. military aid to Israel should instead be diverted toward aid to Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for saying that U.S. That is unhealthy, and we have to put an end to it.”Įdelstein criticized U.S. People hear her and think all Arabs must hate us and want to kill us. I believe in coexistence and fighting against those who harm it and I think that Zoabi’s words and actions hurt coexistence. 'I remember Arab MKs joining me at the March of the Living and proposing social-oriented legislation with me. 'I have been in the Knesset for almost 19 years,' Edelstein said. In 2014, he was one of several Members of the Knesset (MK) who submitted complaints against Arab-Israeli Haneen Zoabi for supporting Hamas, which led to her six-month suspension. In the same interview, Edelstein stated that he believes in Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.

In December 2014, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Edelstein warned world leaders against creating a Palestinian state that he thought would go to war with Israel. On 25 March 2020, he stepped down as the Speaker. įollowing the 2013 elections, he became Speaker of the Knesset. He retained his seat in the 2009 elections after being placed twelfth on the party's list, and was appointed Minister of Information and Diaspora in the Netanyahu government. Although Edelstein lost his seat in the 2006 elections, in which Likud was reduced to 12 seats (Edelstein was 14th on the party's list), he re-entered the Knesset as a replacement for Dan Naveh in February 2007. He retained his seat in the 2003 elections, shortly after which Yisrael BaAliyah merged into Likud. He was re-elected in 1999, and was appointed Deputy Immigrant Absorption Minister by Ariel Sharon in 2001. He was elected to the Knesset in 1996, and was appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption in Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led government. Initially a member of the National Religious Party and a vice-president of Zionist Forum, Edelstein founded the Yisrael BaAliyah party together with fellow Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky. Political careerĮdelstein as Information Minister, briefing reporters at site of Hamas rocket attack, 2012 He did his national service in the Israel Defense Forces, attaining the rank of Corporal. He then emigrated to Israel, moving to the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut. Įdelstein was released in May 1987, on the eve of Israeli Independence Day, the next to last of the refuseniks to be freed. He was due to be transferred back to Buryatia, but his wife, Tanya, threatened to go on hunger strike if he was returned there. He broke several bones after falling from a construction tower. He was then sent to Siberian penal colonies and did hard labor, first in Buryatia and then in Novosibirsk. In 1984, he and other Hebrew teachers were arrested on fabricated charges, Edelstein himself being charged with possession of drugs, and sentenced to three years. During this time, he found odd jobs as a street cleaner, security guard, and more. In 1979, he was expelled from the university and suffered harassment by the KGB and local police. One of Edelstein's students was refusenik Alexander Smukler. Turned down, he began to associate with a small group of Hebrew teachers who held classes in their apartments. In 1977, during his second year of university, Edelstein applied for an exit visa to emigrate to Israel. When Edelstein's grandfather died, Yuli began to study Hebrew and read books such as Exodus by Leon Uris, which inspired him. His grandfather had taught himself Hebrew at the age of 70 and used to listen to the Voice of Israel on a shortwave radio. While his parents taught at universities in the countryside, Edelstein was raised by his maternal grandparents. Both converted to Christianity, and Yuri is now a Russian Orthodox priest in Karabanovo of Kostroma Oblast named Father Georgy. His mother, Anita Edelstein, was Jewish, while his father, Yuri Edelstein, is the son of a Jewish father and Christian mother. Yuli Edelstein was born in Chernivtsi in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine) to a Jewish family.

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