Yitzhak Ben-Aharon

Ben-Aharon was born Yitzhak Nussenbaum (see Hebrew version of this page) in the Bukovina region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Romania). He attended high school in Cernăuţi and studied at the Advanced School for Political Science in Berlin.

He became a leader in Hashomer Hatzair in Romania, and in 1928 he emigrated to Mandate Palestine. In 1933, he became a member of kibbutz Givat Haim and after the 1952 split in the Kibbutz Movement, he joined the Mapam-affiliated Givat Haim (Meuhad), where he remained a member for the rest of his life.

From 1932–38, he was Secretary of the Tel Aviv Workers' Council. In the summer of 1935, he served for a few months as the envoy for the Halutz organization in Nazi Germany until he was expelled by the Gestapo. From 1938–39, he was Secretary of Mapai.

In 1940, he enlisted in the British army to fight against Nazi Germany in World War II, where he reached the rank of Major. He was captured in the Greek front in 1941, along with other soldiers from the Yishuv, until they were released in 1945.

After the war, he joined Mapam and from 1948 became one of its leaders. After the split in Mapam in 1954, he became one of the leaders of a split that formed the Ahdut HaAvoda party.

He was a Knesset member seven times, and member of several parliamentary committees. From 1958–62, he became the Minister of Transport, but resigned over what he called the government's anti-labour socioeconomic policy. From 1969–73, he became General-Secretary of the Histadrut. In 1977, he retired from active political life, but continued to express critical, pro-socialist views for the rest of his life.

He was the author of several books and articles. On 19 May 2006, he died in his kibbutz. Ben-Aharon donated his body to science, so there was no burial.