David Bar-Rav-Hai - Biography

David Bar-Rav-Hai (born David Borovoi on 11 July 1894, died 5 July 1977) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai from 1949 until 1955, and again from 1956 until 1965.

Biography

Born in Nizhyn in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Bar-Rav-Hai joined the Zionist Students Organization in Odessa. In 1911 he moved to Germany, but returned to Russia in 1918 and joined the Young Zion movement, becoming secretary of the Jewish community in Odessa, until the Soviet authorities closed it down in 1920. Afterwards he joined the Zionist underground, and was arrested in 1922. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released after 15 months and expelled from the country. In 1924 he made aliyah to Mandate Palestine, where he joined Hapoel Hatzair. He also became a member of the workers councils in Haifa and Jerusalem, and was sent to Poland and Romania as an emissary.

Between 1932 and 1948 he was a member of the Jewish National Council, after which he was an alternate member of the Provisional State Council, and chaired the committee to draw up the rules for the country's first elections in 1949. In the elections he won a seat on the Mapai list. He was re-elected in 1951, but lost his seat in the 1955 elections. However, he re-entered the Knesset on 24 October 1956 as a replacement for Senetta Yoseftal. He was re-elected in 1959 and 1961, but lost his seat in 1965.

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