Elie Yossef

Who is Elie Yossef?

Elie Yossef is a London-born Israeli educator and political activist.

Eli Yossef grew up in London and attended the Hasmonean High School where he established Betar England in 1973. In 1975, Yossef emigrated to Israel and served in the Golani and Paratroopers brigades of the Israel Defense Forces. After completing his military service, Yossef studied at Machon Meir and Hebrew University. In 1988, Yossef founded a Youth Aliyah high school for new immigrants from France.In 1997, he organized a military preparatory program for Jewish students from abroad interested in volunteering in Israel's army.

One of his major causes is freeing Jonathan Pollard. In January 2000, Yossef conducted a hunger strike on Pollard's behalf outside of Israel's Parliament. He argued that anyone who passes classified information to the State of Israel regarding enemy intentions to harm Israel is morally innocent even if technically guilty by American law. In 2002 Yossef traveled to numerous Israeli high-schools and spoke of Pollard's plight as a moral national issue. Yossef's efforts to free Pollard has led him to collaborate with former Prisoners of Zion Natan Sharansky and Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch over the years, highlighting the similarities between their situations in the Soviet Union and Pollard's in the United States.