Uri Zohar

Uri Zohar (Hebrew: אורי זוהר‎; 4 November 1935 – 2 June 2022) was an Israeli film director, actor and comedian who left the entertainment world to become an Orthodox rabbi. Uri Zohar was born in Tel Aviv. His parents were Polish Jewish immigrants. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage, to singer Ilana Rovina, ended in divorce.In 1960, he studied philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was sentenced to three months of community service on charges of marijuana possession. In the late 1970s, under the influence of Yitzhak Shlomo Zilberman, Zohar turned to religion, becoming a Haredi Orthodox Jew and a rabbi.He was a close friend of Arik Einstein, with whom he made some of his most noted films. Einstein's two daughters married Zohar's sons.Zohar was one of the founding members of Ma'ale Amos. Later, he resided in Jerusalem.He died at the age of 86 on 2 June 2022. He was survived by his second wife Eliya Shuster, a former actress who had participated in a film he directed, their seven children and numerous grandchildren.