Elimelekh Rimalt was born in Bochnia. He received a doctorate at the university of Vienna in 1931 and in 1932 was ordained rabbi at the Vienna Rabbinical Seminary. From 1933 to 1938 he was rabbi of Innsbruck and other communities in the Tirol and Vorarlberg. For a year he directed the Emigration Department of the Vienna Jewish community and in 1939 moved to Ramat Gan in Palestine.
In Israel he headed schools and directed the Ramat Gan Department of Education. In the Knesset from 1951, Rimalt sat until 1977 on behalf of the Liberal party. He served on various committees and from 1965 chaired the Education and Culture Committee of the Knesset.