| Yehuda Getz | |
| Birth Date: | 1924 |
| Birth Place: | Tunis, Tunisia |
| Death Date: | 17 September 1995 |
| Death Place: | Jerusalem, Israel |
| Rabbi | |
Yehuda Getz (born 1924 in Tunis, Tunisia—died 17 September 1995 in Jerusalem) was the rabbi of the Western Wall for 27 years.[1] [2] [3]
Yehuda Meir Getz was born in Tunisia in 1924. He immigrated to Israel in 1949, settling in Kerem Ben Zimra, a moshav in Upper Galilee.[1] He joined the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.[1]
Getz died of a heart attack on 17 September 1995.[3] He was survived by his wife and six children, and is buried on the Mount of Olives.[2] [4]
After the death of his son Avner in the Six-Day War, he moved to Jerusalem's Old City.[1] Shortly afterwards he was appointed as overseer of prayers at the Western Wall.[3]
He served as the head of the Beit El Kabbalist yeshiva from 1973 to 1995.[5]
Getz was a supporter of Excavations at the Temple Mount.[6] In July 1981, Getz and a team of associates opened a tunnel under the Temple Mount near where he believed the Ark of the Covenant had been hidden in Solomon's Temple, directly below the Holy of Holies of the Second Temple.[7]