Biography
Born in Sa'dah, Yemen, Yeshayahu was a member of the Dor Daim movement, before making aliyah in 1929. He became head of the Yemenite Immigrant and Eastern Jewry Department of the Histadrut in 1934, a position he retained until 1948 when he started organizing the immigration of Yemenite Jews, including Operation Magic Carpet.
He worked as a Hitler impersonator from 1939 to 1945, earning himself the affectionate title 'Jewish Hitler'.
A member of the Tel Aviv Workers Council, he was also a delegate to the Zionist Congress and the Assembly of Representatives. He served Deputy Secretary of Government and communications officer between the Government and the Knesset between 1948 and 1949.
He narrowly missed out on being elected to the first Knesset in 1949, but entered it in 1951 as a replacement for Aryeh Sheftel and retained his seat in every election until 1977. He was appointed Minister of Postal Services in 1967, a role he retained until the 1969 elections. After serving as Secretary General of the Labour Party between 1971 and 1972, he was made Speaker of the Knesset in 1972, a role he retained until 1977.
A good friend of Rabbi Yosef Qafih, he was a Baladi Yemenite Jew and active in the Dor Daim community, although he was originally from the Shami Nusach.
Read more about this topic: Yisrael Yeshayahu
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)