Yosef Burg

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Yosef Burg
Date of birth 31 January 1909
Year of Aliyah 1939
Date of death 15 October 1999
Knesset(s) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th,
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th
Party National Religious Party
Former parties Mizrahi Workers,
United Religious Front
Gov't roles
(current in bold)		 Minister of Health
Minister of Postal Services
Minister of Welfare
Minister of Internal Affairs
Minister of Religious Affairs
Minister without Portfolio

Dr Yosef Shlomo Burg (Hebrew: יוסף שלמה בורג‎, born 31 January 1909, died 15 October 1999) was a long-serving Israeli politician and Rabbi.

Born in Dresden, Germany, he attended the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin and the University of Berlin from 1928 to 1931. He received a Doctorate in philosophy from the University of Leipzig in 1933. He continued to study at the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin and became a Rabbi in 1938. In 1939, he made aliyah to become a research fellow at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In Israel, Burg joined the Mizrahi Workers, a religious-Zionist party. Alongside three other religious parties, the Mizrahi Workers ran on a joint list called the United Religious Front for the first Knesset elections in 1949. The group won 16 seats and Burg took a seat in the Knesset and became Deputy Speaker.

In the 1951 elections the party ran by itself, winning eight seats. Burg remained in the Knesset and became Minister of Health in the third government. In the fourth, fifth and sixth governments he served as Minister of Postal Services, a position he retained until 1958.

In 1956 the Mizrahi Workers merged with their ideological twins from the Mizrahi party to form the National Religious Party (NRP). The party was a member of all governments until 1992, and as a key party member, Burg maintained a ministerial position in every Knesset until his resignation from the Knesset in 1986, holding the positions of Minister of Welfare, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister without Portfolio and Minister of Religious Affairs.

In 1977, he became the President of the World Mizrahi Movement.

He is the father of Avraham Burg, who was speaker of the fifteenth Knesset.

[edit] References

  • Yosef Burg. The State of Israel. Retrieved on July 29, 2005.
  • Dr Yosef Burg. The Department for Jewish Zionist Education. Retrieved on July 29, 2005.

[edit] External links