Yitzhak Rafael, who helped bring hundreds of thousands of immigrants to Israel, died Tuesday in Jerusalem after a long illness. He was 85. Rafael, who headed the immigration department of the Jewish Agency for Israel in the nation’s early years, oversaw waves of immigration to the Jewish state from 1948-1953. Rafael was Israel’s religious affairs minister from 1974-1977 and served seven terms as a lawmaker from the National Religious Party.
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