Politicsבן-ציון דינור

Ben-Zion Dinur

Ben-Zion Dinur was an Israeli historian, educator and politician who served as Minister of Education and Culture from 1951 to 1955.

1884 to 1973The 1953 State Education LawInitiating the Israel PrizeResearch on Jewish historyFounding Yad Vashem

Born: 14 January 1884, Khorol
Died: 8 July 1973, Jerusalem
Occupation: politician, historian, rabbi, pedagogue
Party: Mapai
Education: Saint Petersburg State University, University of Bern, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Founded: Israel Prize (1953)

Ben-Zion Dinur was born in 1884 in Khorol

Ben-Zion Dinaburg, later Dinur, was born in 1884 in Khorol in the Russian Empire, to a family of Chabad Hasidim. He studied in several yeshivot, including Telz under Rabbi Shimon Shkop and Slabodka. He was certified as a rabbi in Vilnius.

From 1902 to 1911 he taught and took part in Zionist activity, which led to a short arrest. In 1910 he married Bilhah Feingold, a teacher. He then studied at universities in Berlin, Bern and Petrograd, but the October Revolution kept him from receiving his doctorate.

In 1921 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and taught at the teachers' college in Jerusalem, which he later headed. In 1936 he began teaching Jewish history at the Hebrew University. His works include "Israel in Its Land" and "Israel in Exile".

He served in the first Knesset for Mapai. As Minister of Education and Culture he advanced the 1953 State Education Law, which ended the party streams in education, and the Yad Vashem law. He also initiated the Israel Prize and headed Yad Vashem from 1953 to 1959.

He received the Israel Prize in 1958 for Jewish studies and in 1973 for education. He died in 1973.