Amnon Haramati, z”l

Rabbi Amnon Haramati was born in Jerusalem. His parents came to Eretz Israel as religious pioneers in the early 1920s. In 1948 he had the historic privilege of participating in the defense of Jerusalem, when the Israeli army was just being formed, as was the state of Israel itself. At every opportunity he took the initiative to organize cultural programs for the members of his army unit. From 1947 to 1950 he attended Mizrahi Teachers College, and then studied for bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Hebrew University from 1951 to 1955. In these same eight years, while he was receiving his own education, he taught in a variety of settings. In the school year 1949-50 he was sent by the Ministry of Education to the children’s village of Kfar Batya to complete his training as a teacher. In 1951 he was sent to teach in a school for underprivileged children and he remained there until 1956 when he was invited by Dr. Joel Braverman, founder of the Yeshiva of Flatbush, to join the faculty of the High School. Since 1956, Rabbi Haramati has worked there as a teacher of Talmud, Bible, Hebrew Language and Literature, Jewish thought, and Jewish law. He has been Chairman of the school’s Bible Department for the last thirty years.

From 1959 to 1963 Amnon Haramati studied in a doctoral program in Bible Studies with Professor H. L. Ginsberg at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Seven years after that, Haramati received rabbinic ordination from Harav Y. Gershuni of Yeshivat Eretz Israel in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to his formal professional tasks, Rabbi Haramati has given his time to community service. He served as Vice President of the G.E.T. organization, which helps Jewish couples reconcile their differences or proceed in a dignified manner to obtain a get, a Jewish divorce. Since 1978 he has conducted an early morning Shabbat class for many adults in his neighborhood, including the parents of his high school students and other community members. The members of this class spend an hour before Shabbat morning services in intensive study of Torah.