Haim-Moshe Shapira
Haim-Moshe Shapira (Hebrew: חיים משה שפירא, 26 March 1902 – 16 July 1970) was a key Israeli politician in the early days of the state's existence. A signatory of Israel's declaration of independence, he served continuously as a minister from the country's foundation in 1948 until his death in 1970 apart from a brief spell in the late 1950s.
Haim-Moshe Shapira
26 March 1902
Horadnia, Russian Empire
16 July 1970 (aged 68)
Biography[edit]
Haim-Moshe Shapira was born to Zalman Shapira and Rosa Krupnik in the Russian Empire in Grodno in what is today Belarus. He was educated in heder and a yeshiva, where he organised a youth group called Bnei Zion (Sons of Zion).[1] He worked in the Education and Culture department of the National Jewish Council in Kaunas (now in Lithuania), and in 1919 set up the Young Mizrachi, which became a leading player in the religious Zionist youth movement in Lithuania.[1] In 1922 he started work as a teacher at an ultra-orthodox school in Vilnius, and also served on the board of the Mizrachi group in the city.[1] Between 1923 and 1924 he was active in the Young Mizrachi group in Warsaw, before attending a Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin between 1924 and 1925.[1]
In 1925 he was a delegate at the Zionist Congress, where he was elected onto the executive committee.[1] In the same year he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.[1] In 1928 he was elected onto the Central Committee of the Hapoel HaMizrachi movement, and also served as a member of the World Mizrachi committee.[1]
In 1936 he was elected as a member of the Zionist Directorate and became a director of the Aliyah department of the Jewish Agency, a role he filled until 1948.[1] In 1938 he was sent on a special mission to try to save Jews in Austria following the takeover by Nazi Germany.[1]
Injury[edit]
On 29 October 1957 Moshe Dwek, a 26 year old disgruntled citizen, entered the main hall of the Knesset and threw a hand grenade towards the seats of the government ministers, wounding Shapira, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Foreign Minister Golda Meir and Transportation Minister Moshe Carmel. Dwek claimed the Jewish Agency had not helped him sufficiently. Ben-Gurion was wounded in his hands and foot by shrapnel, Carmel suffered a broken arm, Meir was treated for minor injuries. However, Shapiro was more seriously injured and had to undergo several operations to remove shrapnel from his stomach and head. In September 1958, on the day before Yom Kippur, Dwek sent Shapira a letter of apology. Shapiro accepted the apology.[2]