Yitzhak Moda'i

Yitzhak Moda'i
Date of birth 17 January 1926
Place of birth Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine
Date of death 22 May 1998(1998-05-22) (aged 72)
Knessets 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
Party New Liberal Party
Former parties Likud
Ministerial posts Minister of Energy & Infrastructure
Minister of Communications
Minister without Portfolio
Minister of Finance
Minister of Justice
Minister of Economics & Planning

Yitzhak Moda'i (Hebrew: יצחק מודעי‎, born 17 January 1926, died 22 May 1998) was an Israeli politician, who served five terms in the Knesset for Likud and then the New Liberal Party over the course of a 20-year career.

Biography

Born in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era, Moda'i attended High School in Tel Aviv before studying at the Technion in Haifa, later becoming chairman of the Technion Graduates Association in 1961. He went on to study law at the Tel Aviv branch of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and law and economics at the London School of Economics.

In 1961 he joined the Liberal Party, and was a member of its directorate between 1965 and 1968. From 1969 until 1973 he served as a member of Herzliya's municipal council.

He was first elected to the Knesset on the Likud list (the Liberal Party had become a faction within Likud, alongside Herut). He was re-elected in 1977, and served as Minister of National Infrastructure in Menachem Begin's first government, also holding the post of Minister of Communications between 15 January 1979 and 22 December 1980.

After being re-elected again in 1981, he became a Minister without Portfolio, before returning to the Energy and Infrastructure post in October 1982. Following the 1984 elections he became Minister of Finance. In 1985 he and Prime Minister Shimon Peres devised the economic stabilization plan that managed to curtail Israel's hyperinflation of the early 1980s.[1] Due to the plan, the Israeli economy averted total collapse and inflation was reduced from an annual rate of almost 450% to less than 20% in less than two years. This plan has become a model for other countries facing similar economic situations.

On 16 April 1986 he switched to the Minister of Justice, before leaving the cabinet on 23 July that year. He returned to the government as a Minister without Portfolio in November. Between 1984 and 1988 he also served as chairman of the Liberal Party's presidium.

After the 1988 elections he was appointed Minister of Economics and Planning, before returning to the Finance portfolio in 1990. On 15 March 1990 he and four other MKs (all of them former members of the Liberal Party) broke away from Likud to form the Party for the Advancement of the Zionist Idea, later renamed the New Liberal Party; however, the new party remained in the government and Moda'i became Finance Minister again in 1990.

The New Liberal Party failed to cross the electoral threshold in the 1992 elections and Moda'i lost his seat.

His wife, Michal Moda'i, was Miss Israel, and then president of the Women's International Zionist Organization World. They had three children. the eldest, Harela, killed in a car accident when she was 22. Prize is awarded annually Army Radio commander in her name. Son, Boaz Modai, is a senior diplomat in the Foreign Service since September 2010 serving as Israel's ambassador to Ireland

References

  1. ^ Yitzhak Moda'i, 20-year veteran of Knesset, 72. Jewishsf.com (22 May 1998). Retrieved on 9 September 2011.

External links

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  • entire or partial tenure as Substitute Justice Minister, until a replacement was found
Moda'i (1977-81) · Berman (1981-82) · Moda'i (1982-84) · Shahal (1984-90) · Ne'eman (1990-92) · Rubinstein (1992-93) · Shahal (1993-95) · Segev (1995-96) · Levy (1996) · Sharon (1996-99) · Suissa (1999-2000) · Shochat (2000-01) · Lieberman (2001-02) · Eitam (2002-03) · Paritzky (2003-04) · Sandberg (2004) · Ben-Eliezer (2005) · Bar-On (2006) · Ben-Eliezer (2006-09) · Landau (2009-)