Date of birth 23 February 1897 Name Mordechai Namir Year of aliyah 1924 Died February 22, 1975, Israel | 1951–1965 Mapai Education Odessa University 1965–1968 Alignment Resigned 1969 | |
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Place of birth Nemyriv, Russian Empire Date of death 22 February 1975(1975-02-22) (aged 77) Role Former Mayor of Tel Aviv–Yafo Previous office Mayor of Tel Aviv–Yafo (1959–1969) Knessets Israeli legislative election, 1951 Similar People Haim Arlosoroff, Yitzhak Rabin, Joseph Trumpeldor | ||
Mordechai Namir (Hebrew: מרדכי נמיר, born Mordechai Nemirovsky; 23 February 1897 – 22 February 1975) was an Israeli politician, who served as the mayor of Tel Aviv (1959–1969), a Knesset member and government minister, as well as being one of the heads of the Labour Zionist movement.
Biography
Namir was born in Nemyriv in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine) and studied at a heder before graduating from the Odessa University, where he studied law and economics. In 1924 he was arrested by the Soviet authorities for his work for Zionism, and upon his release made aliyah. In Mandatory Palestine, he worked for the Davar newspaper.
Namir became the secretary of the Ahdut HaAvoda party in 1926, a position he held until 1930. From 1929 to 1935 he also served as the director of the statistics department in the Histadrut. From 1935 he was a member of Tel Aviv's city council and from 1936, secretary of the workers' union in the city. Additionally, he was a member of the Haganah command in the city and later in all of Mandatory Palestine.
Between 1949 and 1950 he was also on a diplomatic mission to Eastern Europe and Moscow, about which he wrote a book in 1971 (A Mission in Moscow: A Honeymoon and Years of Wrath).
From 1950 to 1956, Namir served as the general secretary of the Histadrut. He was elected to the Knesset on behalf of Mapai in 1951 and remained an MK until 1969, when the 6th Knesset was disbanded. During this time he was also the CEO of the government-owned construction company Amidar (1959-59) and Minister of Labour from 1956 until 1959.
In addition to his Knesset duties, Namir was also the mayor of Tel Aviv between 1960 and 1969, and part of a major expressway in the city (Highway 2, also called Derekh Namir) and a square bear his name.
He was married to former Knesset Member and Minister Ora Namir.