Shlomo Chaim Hacohen Aviner (Hebrew: שלמה חיים הכהן אבינר, born 1943/5703 as Claude Langenauer[1]) is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi.

At the age of 23, infused with the idea of working the Land of Israel, Aviner made aliyah to Sde Eliyahu, a kibbutz near Beit She'an.

The yeshiva has produced rabbis, teachers, educators, and IDF officers, while promoting the building and settling of Jews in Jerusalem.

As a result of the uproar following the publication, the newspaper appointed an independent investigator, the psychiatrist Netanel Laor, who came to the conclusion that Aviner was innocent, though maybe guilty of practicing therapy without the backing of a professional.

[7] In 2005, prior to the forced mass eviction of Jews from Gush Katif as part of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, he took a rabbinical stance that soldiers deployed to the scene should not refuse orders.

[8][better source needed] In 2007, in an article about Baruch Marzel's threats regarding repeated attempts by the Israeli government to evacuate Homesh, Aviner shared his view that the IDF was correct in its reasoning to remove the latest wave of settlers and demonstrators from the site of the abandoned settlement in order to protect them from future terrorist attacks.

Its existence was revealed by Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli ex-soldiers who accused Aviner of encouraging them to disregard the international laws of war aimed at protecting civilians.

[10] In December 2010, in the wake of a controversial rabbis' letter spearheaded by Shmuel Eliyahu forbidding the renting of homes to Arabs in Israel, Aviner endorsed the initiative.