Yitzhak Wasserlauf

Yitzhak Shimon Wasserlauf (יצחק שמעון וסרלאוף; born 14 August 1992) is an Israeli politician who serves as the Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee and as a member of Knesset for Otzma Yehudit following the 2022 Israeli legislative election.

Biography
Yitzhak Wasserlauf was born in the Old City of Jerusalem to Yisaschar, principal of the Ahavat Haim high school yeshiva in Kokhav HaShahar and part-time rabbi of Yeshivat HaKotel. He studied at Netiv Meir high school yeshiva and worked as a Bnei Akiva counselor and coordinator in the Old City. At the age of 17, he joined the youth movement of the National Union Party and served as its co-director.

Wasserlauf studied at the Hesder Yeshiva in Ma'alot. He enlisted in the Golani Brigade in March 2012, and served in Company B of the 12th Battalion. After his military service, he studied at the Hesder Yeshiva in Beit She'an. In 2014, he joined the kollel of Orot Aviv yeshiva in Tel Aviv headed by Rabbi Achied Ettinger. In 2018, when the kollel closed, he cofounded the kollel of Oz Ve'emuna in south Tel Aviv with Rabbi Ettinger, who was later murdered in an attack near Ariel. After the murder, he founded Achied, a Jewish outreach organization that operates in the Neve Sha'anan and Florentin neighborhoods. He is an active campaigner for the deportation of the Sudanese migrants living in south Tel Aviv.

Wasserlauf is married to Moriah, a lawyer in the consulting and legislation division of the Ministry of Justice, with whom he has three children. The family lives in south Tel Aviv.

Wasserlauf is a law student at the Or Yehuda Campus of Ono Academic College

Political career
In the September 2019 Israeli legislative election, he was placed fourth in the Otzma Yehudit list, but was not elected to the Knesset as Otzma Yehudit was below the election threshold. Placed second in the 2020 Israeli legislative election, the party again did not pass the election threshold.

In the elections for the 21st Knesset, he joined Otzma Yehudit. In the elections for the 25th Knesset, he was placed fifth on the list, which won 14 mandates. Wasserlauf was elected to the Knesset and sworn in on 15 November 2022. He was appointed Ministry for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee.

Personal life
Wasserlauf lives in a neighborhood in northern Tel Aviv. He previously lived in the neighborhood of Shapira.