Avraham-Haim Shag

Avraham-Haim Shag was born in 1887 in Jerusalem

Shag was born Avraham-Haim Zwebner in Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, on 17 July 1883. He was a great-grandson of Rabbi Avraham Shag-Zwebner. In 1900 he married Leah Zwebner, and they had 8 children.

He studied at the Torat Haim yeshiva in Jerusalem and later taught there. He also headed a yeshiva in the city.

Shag helped establish the Mizrachi movement in the country and ran its Jerusalem bureau from 1919 to 1921. He was among the founders of Kfar Saba and helped found the Bayit VeGan, Geula and Romema neighborhoods of Jerusalem. From 1936 he chaired the Jerusalem religious council, and he also sat on the Assembly of Representatives and the National Council board.

In 1949 he was elected to the first Knesset on the United Religious Front list and sat on the finance committee. He lost his seat in the 1951 elections. After his son David fell as a Palmach medic, he worked to commemorate fallen soldiers.

He died on 6 December 1958 and was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery. A street in Bayit VeGan bears his name.