He was born in
Stawiski, near
Łomża, Poland to Moshe Aryeh Zolty and Sarah Rachel (née Bledkowski). In 1927, at the age of seven, he immigrated with his family to
British Mandate Palestine and settled in Jerusalem. As a child, he studied at the
Etz Chaim Yeshiva, then at the
Hebron Yeshiva, and was considered a prodigy. In 1951, he began serving as a member of the
Rabbinical Court in Tel-Aviv and then in Jerusalem, and in 1956, at the age of 36, he was appointed as a member of the Rabbinical Grand Court of Israel. He won the Rabbi Kook Prize for Torah literature twice in 1955 and 1964. Rabbi Zolty came out strongly against the lenient ruling of Rabbi
Shlomo Goren about the
brother and sister whom he freed from
mamzer status in 1973.
Chief rabbi of Jerusalem In 1960, Rabbi
Zvi Pesach Frank, the Ashkenazi rabbi of Jerusalem, died. Due to disagreements in the city's political establishment, the process of selecting his successor did not progress. More than a decade later, on
Hanukkah 1971, prominent
Haredi rabbis in Jerusalem, and members of
Agudat Israel, unofficially crowned Rabbi Zolty as the rabbi of the city of Jerusalem. In November 1977, Rabbi Zolty was officially elected Ashkenazi Rabbi of Jerusalem, after much lobbying by Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef and representatives of Agudat Israel, that led the
Israeli Labor Party to support Rabbi Zolty. His contestant was
Dov Lior, who at the time served as
rosh yeshiva of Nir
Kiryat Arba, and a representative of the national religious community, and was supported by Rabbi Goren. Elected alongside him was the
Sephardic Rabbi
Shalom Messas. Rabbi Zolty served as president of the Yad Aharon Yeshiva, headed by his son-in-law, Rabbi . == Personal life ==