(Likud)

Zeev Elkin was born in 1971 in Kharkov, then part of the Soviet Union (today in the Ukraine), and studied Mathematics at Kharkov University from 1987-1990.  Elkin immigrated to Israel in December 1990 and studied at the Har Etzion Yeshiva until 1995, while at the same time working in the Aliyah Department of the Gesher Organization. Elkin lives in Kfar Eldad in Gush Etzion.  He is married with three children.

Elkin has a BA in Mathematics from Kharkov University, a BA in the History of the Jewish People from the Hebrew University, and before his election to the Knesset, was at an advanced stage of completing a doctoral thesis at the Hebrew University on the subject of Jews in Islamic countries in the Middle Ages.

From 1996-2006 he studied in the University’s Faculty of History of the Jewish People and the School of History, and set up the Chase Center for the Study of Jewish Sciences in Russian.

Elkin was first elected to the Knesset in 2006, and in the 17th Knesset he served as a member of the Finance Committee, the Education Committee, the Constitutional Committee, and the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee.  In the 18th Knesset Elkin is chairman of the Likud Faction and chairman of the Coalition, as well as chairman of the Sub-Committee on Judea & Samaria in the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, chairman of the Land of Israel Lobby, chairman of the Jerusalem Lobby, chairman of the Higher Education Lobby and chairman of the Lobby for Gush Katif Evacuees.

In March 2013 Zeev Elkin was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post he held until assuming the position of Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May 2014. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister of Immigration and Absorption.