Haim Drukman (; 15 November 1932 – 25 December 2022) was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician. The most senior spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist community at the time of his death, he served as rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivat Or Etzion, and head of the Center for Bnei Akiva Yeshivot. A founder of Gush Emunim, Drukman served in the Israeli Knesset as a member of the National Religious Party and Morasha. As director of the State Conversion Authority, he worked to make Jewish conversions more accessible to immigrant Russians of Jewish descent. He was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to society and education. Early life Haim Meir Drukman was born in Kuty in the Second Polish Republic (today in Ukraine). His mother's name was Milkah. After hiding with his parents during the Holocaust, he made aliyah to Mandate Palestine in 1944 by posing as the child of a different set of parents. He was reunited with his real parents after World War II. In 1949, Drukman joined the Israel Defense Forces as part of the Bnei Akiva gar'in (pioneer group) in the Nahal brigade. In this capacity, he took part in the rebuilding of two religious kibbutzim, Tirat Tzvi and Sa'ad, which were damaged in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. After his discharge, Drukman studied at the Aliyah Institute in Petah Tikva and the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva in Kfar Haroeh. He then transferred to the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem, where he became a student of Zvi Yehuda Kook. In 1952, he became a member of Bnei Akiva's National Directorate, and from 1955 until 1956, he served as an emissary of the organisation to the United States, at Kook's behest. Rabbinic career In 1964, once again with his teacher's encouragement, Drukman founded Yeshivat Or Etzion, a Bnei Akiva-affiliated mamlachti dati (state religious) high school, in Merkaz Shapira. In 1977, he established a hesder yeshiva there, which for many years was the largest one in the country. He remained rosh yeshiva (dean) there for the rest of his life. In 1995, he founded Ohr MeOfir there, an academy for high school graduates of the Ethiopian community. Since 1996, he had also been the head of the Center for Bnei Akiva Yeshivot and ulpanot (girls-only high schools) in Israel. In response to a wave of emigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, a considerable number