Former Chief Military Rabbi Brig. Gen. (ret.) Avichai Rontzki passed away on Sunday after a long battle with cancer. He was 66.
Over a 1,000 people, including ministers, MKs, and senior officers attended his funeral in the Samaria settlement of Itamar, where he lived and where he had founded a yeshiva that became synonymous with him.
Rontzki was born in 1951 in Haifa to a secular family. He became religious after joining the military, where he served in the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit. He went on to serve as the head of various prominent yeshivas while rising up the ranks in the reserve service. In 2006, he was appointed as the chief military rabbi, a position he held until 2010.
President Reuven Rivlin eulogized Rontzki as "the epitome of a warrior-educator, a rabbi and commander who would lead his troops into battle. His dignified conduct was part and parcel of who he was all those years, in every capacity he served."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Rontzki as a "warrior and a learned student who loved the people of Israel and the land of Israel."
Rontzki is survived by his wife, Ronit, six children, 26 grandchildren, and hundreds of students.
