Rafael 'Rafi' Peretz is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, former military officer, helicopter pilot, and brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces, where he served as Chief Military Rabbi from 2010 to 2016. He founded the Otzem Pre-Military Academy in 1993 and led it for many years. Born in Jerusalem to parents of Moroccan-Jewish descent, he grew up in the Kiryat HaYovel neighborhood and studied at Mercaz HaRav yeshiva and Yeshivat HaKotel, receiving rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Peretz entered politics as leader of the Jewish Home party in 2019, leading the Union of Right-Wing Parties to five seats in the Knesset election that year. He served as a Member of Knesset for various right-wing alliances, including Yamina and Jewish Home–National Union, until 2021. He held positions as interim Minister of Education (2019-2020) and Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage (2020-2021), joining a Netanyahu-led government in 2020 before announcing his retirement from politics in January 2021. Previously residing in the Gush Katif settlement of Bnei Atzmon until the 2005 Israeli disengagement, he now lives in the village of Naveh. Married with 12 children, he tested positive for COVID-19 in August 2020. Peretz has faced controversies, including inflammatory statements as Chief Military Rabbi in 2014 denying the Temple Mount's significance to Muslims, comparing Jewish assimilation in the US to a 'second Holocaust' in 2019, endorsing then rejecting gay conversion therapy in 2019, and defining a Torah-based family as man and woman in 2020.