David Remez

Zionist leaders, arrested in Operation Agatha, in detention in Latrun (l-r): David Remez, Moshe Sharett, Yitzhak Gruenbaum, Dov Yosef, Mr. Shenkarsky, David Hacohen, and Mr. Halperin (Isser Harel) (1946)

David Remez (Template:Lang-he, born David Drabkin in 1886, died 19 May 1951) was an Israeli politician, the country's first Minister of Transportation, and a signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence.

Biography

Remez was born in the village of Kopys in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) in 1886 and attended high school there. He studied Law in Turkey before starting work as a teacher. He moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1913, and worked as an agricultural laborer in Ben Shemen, Be'er Tuvia, Karkur and Zikhron Ya'akov.

Political career

He became involved in politics and trade unionism soon after the Mandate Era began, serving as Director of the Public Works Office of the Histadrut from 1921 to 1929 as well as on Tel Aviv's city council from 1921 to 1925, and was a founding member of David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party. He became Secretary of the Histadrut in 1930, a position he retained until 1946, and also chaired the Jewish National Council from 1944-1949.

Having signed Israel's declaration of independence, Remez was appointed Minister of Transportation in David Ben-Gurion's provisional government on 14 May 1948, a position he retained after the formation of the first government following the first Knesset elections in 1949. When the first government collapsed in November 1950, Remez became Education Minister taking over from Zalman Shazar. He died in office in May 1951, the first Israeli minister to do so. His Knesset seat was taken by Menachem Cohen.

Commemoration

After his death several places in Israel were named after him, among them the Haifa neighborhood Ramot Remez and Remez Square in Jerusalem. His son, Aharon Remez was the second commander of the Israeli Air Force.

External links

• David Remez on the Knesset website