Avraham Granot

Avraham Granot
Date of birth 18 June 1890
Place of birth Făleşti, Russian Empire
Year of aliyah 1924
Date of death 5 July 1962(1962-07-05) (aged 72)
Knessets 1, 2
Party Progressive Party

Avraham Granot (Hebrew: אברהם גרנות‎, born Abraham Granovsky; 18 June 1890 – 5 July 1962) was a Zionist activist, Israeli politician and a signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence.

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Biography

Granot was born in Făleşti, Bessarabia in the Russian Empire (today Moldova). He attended Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv. In 1911, he traveled to Switzerland to study law and political economy at the University of Fribourg and University of Lausanne, graduating with a PhD in 1917.

Political career

In 1919 he began working for the Jewish National Fund in The Hague, and was relocated to Jerusalem in 1922. Two years later he officially immigrated to Mandate Palestine. He also lectured at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on agrarian policy. In 1940 he was appointed director-general of the JNF.

Granot was a member of the New Aliyah Party and one of the signers of the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948. In 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset as a member of the Progressive Party (the successor of the New Aliyah Party). He was re-elected in 1951, but resigned from the Knesset six weeks after the election. He was head of several public corporations, and sat on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science.[1]

In 1960, Granot was elected chairman of the JNF Board of Directors.

Commemoration

Neve Granot, a neighborhood in Jerusalem near the Israel Museum is named for him. The main street is Avraham Granot Street.[2]

Books in English

References

  1. ^ Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel, edited by Raphael Patai, Herzl Press/McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971, pp.409-410
  2. ^ Information on street names in Jerusalem Jerusalem Municipal Council website (Hebrew)

External links