David-Zvi Pinkas

David-Zvi Pinkas (Hebrew: דוד-צבי פנקס, 5 December 1895 – 14 August 1952) was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician. A signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence, he was the country's third Minister of Transport.

Biography

Born in Sopron in Austria-Hungary (today in Hungary), Pinkas attended high school in Vienna, before studying at a yeshiva in Freiburg and law at the University of Vienna. He was involved in Zionist youth groups, and was one of the leaders of Young Mizrachi in Vienna and one of the founders of the Yeshuran movement.

In 1923 he was a delegate to the 13th Zionist congress, and two years later immigrated to Mandate Palestine. He became director of Bank Mizrahi in 1932, the same year in which he was elected to Tel Aviv city council. Three years later he was appointed head of the city's education department.

In 1944 he became a member of the Assembly of Representatives, and between 1947 and 1948 served as a member of the Jewish National Council's directorate. In 1948 he was one of the people to sign the Israeli declaration of independence. During the subsequent Arab-Israeli War, he was one of the leaders of the security committee.

Pinkas' tomb (left, with his wife, Leah on the right) in Tel Aviv

Following independence, Pinkas assumed membership of the Provisional State Council, and was responsible for drawing up the regulations for the council's committees. In Israel's first elections in 1949 he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the United Religious Front, an alliance of Agudat Israel, Agudat Israel Workers, Mizrachi (Pinkas' party) and Hapoel HaMizrachi, and served as chairman of the influential finance committee. In 1950 he was also elected Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv.

In the 1951 elections Mizrachi ran alone, and Pinkas retained his seat, though the party won only two mandates. He was appointed Minister of Transport, and remained chairman of the finance committee. In his role as minister, he stopped public transport from operating on shabbat, for which he was targeted by an assassination attempt, with a bomb left on his doorstep by Amos Kenan and Shaltiel Ben Yair in June 1952. Although he survived, he died two months later of a heart attack and was buried in the Trumpeldor cemetery in Tel Aviv. Ramat Pinkas was named after him.

External links

David-Zvi Pinkas on the Knesset website