Avraham Krinitzi

Avraham Krinitzi was born in 1886 in Hrodna

Krinitzi was born in Grodno in the Russian Empire, in today's Belarus, to Yaakov and Leah. He left religious school to study carpentry and was active in the Bund and later in The Young Worker. He immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1905, during the Second Aliyah.

He worked as a carpenter in Rehovot, Rishon LeZion, Jaffa and Petah Tikva, and spent about a year working in Cairo. In 1907 he went back to Russia for a short time, where he helped organize Jewish self-defense in Grodno, and then returned. He took part in settlement and security work and was among the early members of the Haganah.

During World War I he took Ottoman citizenship and in 1915 supervised tree cutting for railway fuel, issuing work permits that kept Jews out of the army. In 1917 he served in Damascus as an officer at a weapons repair plant. After the war he founded a furniture factory in Tel Aviv and in 1921 helped organize the city's municipal police.

In 1922 he bought land in Ramat Gan and built his home there from 1925. In 1926 Ramat Gan became a local council and he was its first head, representing the General Zionists. He won 12 consecutive elections and held office for 43 years.

In November 1969, shortly after his election to a 12th term, he died in a car accident with his son-in-law and his driver. They were buried in the Ramat Gan National Park, which he founded in 1953. He left his home to the city, and it now serves as a museum of Ramat Gan history.