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Yeshivat Bet El - Netanya Branch

Bringing Torah to traditional and secular Israelis in Israel’s major cities starts with one simple principle: being there.

Our Mission

Our Netanya branch is deeply embedded in the local community, offering engaging Torah programs, social events, and more. This power of Torah, imbued in the nation, has a deep influence on the entire environment, inspiring greater commitment to the nation and to Hashem, and making the world a better place.  This goes hand in hand with maintaining their own Torah growth and cultivating a committed Chabura in a beautiful, welcoming Beit Midrash that we renovated on-site.

Torah leaders living with the nation

The yeshiva offers classes for teens and adults, including relevant topics such as marriage and children’s education, as well as a Hotline for halakha questions.

Our students also mentor Bar and Bat Mitzvah youth, offer Chevrutot for residents, and lead a weekly sunset Kabbalat Shabbat service on the oceanfront.

If Torah outreach matters to you, partner with us by supporting our Netanya branch.

Torah leaders in a family-oriented environment

The Yeshiva is designed for a dedicated group of learners, including both young students and married students (Avrechim), who strive for significant spiritual growth in light of the legacy of Rav Kook and Torat Eretz Yisrael. It is ideally suited for those seeking a vibrant Beit Midrash that combines high-level study with direct, unmediated access to a staff of rabbis and Torah scholars. The learning environment is characterized by a deep personal connection between the rabbis and the students, allowing for close, personal guidance in their spiritual development.

All-encompassing Bet Midrash

The Yeshiva offers Shas, Iyun, and Halakha programs, alongside shared Jewish thought classes led by distinguished scholars, all homegrown alumni of Yeshivat Bet El. Special emphasis is placed on shared learning with senior rabbis who visit the Yeshiva daily to deliver lessons and engage with students in the Beit Midrash. These programs include weekly classes from renowned Torah scholars who accompany and inspire the learners from morning until evening, including Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber, mekubal Rav Chaim Ben-Shushan, Rav Pinchas Mundshein, and more.

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Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.