Religious journalist Uri Elitzur, editor-in-chief of Makor Rishon, died this morning at the age of 68, after a battle with cancer.<\/p>\r\n
Uri Elitzur, or his full name Yechiel Urihu, was born in Jerusalem in 1946, studied at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva, and was one of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook's close students. He fought in the Six-Day War, and participated in the crossing of the Canal during the Yom Kippur War.<\/p>\r\n
He was one of the first activists of the Gush Emunim settlement movement in the early 1970s, and was one of the founders of the settlement of Ofra, where he lived.<\/p>\r\n
Elitzur also held political positions. He was involved in the establishment of the "Heritage" party, and between 1977 and 1987 he served as Secretary General of the Yesha Council's settlement movement, "Amena." He later served as Secretary General of the Yesha Council and Acting Secretary General of the National Democratic Party, and served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Netanyahu during his first term, and for years he was also one of the writers of his speeches. During his illness, Netanyahu and other ministers visited him in the hospital.<\/p>\r\n
He began his journalistic career as a regular columnist for the newspaper "Hadhasot", from which he retired shortly after. For 17 years, he wrote a regular column in Yedioth Ahronoth, and served as editor of the settler monthly "Nekuda". In the late 1990s, he was one of the activists who founded "Makor Rishon". However, it was not until 2004 that he actually joined "Makor Rishon", initially as deputy editor and editor of the political supplement "Yoman", and in the last year served as the newspaper's actual editor-in-chief.<\/p>\r\n
In 2008, he won the Sokolov Prize for written journalism. The judges' reasoning stated: "The prize was given to Uri Elitzur for his clear, eloquent, and reasoned journalistic writing, for his unique contribution to public discourse in Israel, and for his roles as an editor.".<\/p>\r\n
His funeral will leave at 4:00 PM from his home in Ofra.<\/p>\r\n
May his memory be blessed.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elitzur, a student of the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, held a series of senior positions in the Israeli media \u2022 In the past year, he served as editor-in-chief of the newspaper Makor Rishon","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[3668,449,3797,456],"class_list":["post-23331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-93","tag-3668","tag-449","tag-3797","tag-456"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n