Benjamin Mintz

Benjamin Mintz was born in 1903 in Łódź

Mintz was born in Łódź in 1903, then part of the Russian Empire, to a family of Ger Hasidim. He studied at a Ger Hasidic school and was active in Young Agudat Yisrael. In 1923 he was a delegate to the Agudat Yisrael Great Assembly in Vienna.

He moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1925, worked in construction in Tel Aviv and later opened a small print shop. He also reported from the Land of Israel for an Agudat Yisrael newspaper in Poland, urging Haredi Jews to settle there.

In 1933 he helped found Poalei Agudat Yisrael, and in 1939 he was among the founders of Yedioth Ahronoth. During World War II he wrote about the danger to European Jews and was a member of the Yishuv rescue committee from 1943. He later sat on the Provisional State Council.

Elected to the first Knesset in 1949 for the United Religious Front, he chaired the Interior Committee and later served as a deputy speaker. On 17 July 1960 he became Minister of Postal Services. His joining the government caused a split between Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael, and he died in office on 30 May 1961.