Politicsחיים משה שפירא

Chaim-Moshe Shapira

Haim-Moshe Shapira was an Israeli politician, a signer of Israel's Declaration of Independence, and a government minister from 1948 until his death in 1970.

1902 to 1970Signing the Declaration of IndependenceLeading the National Religious PartyDovish religious Zionist positionsThe 1957 Knesset grenade attack

Born: 26 March 1902, Hrodna
Died: 16 July 1970, Jerusalem
Occupation: politician
Party: National Religious Party
Education: Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

Chaim-Moshe Shapira was born in 1902 in Hrodna

Shapira was born in 1902 in Grodno, then part of the Russian Empire and today in Belarus. His parents were Zalman Shapira and Rosa Krupnik. He studied in religious schools and a yeshiva, where he formed a youth group called Bnei Zion.

In 1919 he founded the Young Mizrachi in Lithuania, and in 1922 he began teaching at a school in Vilnius. From 1924 to 1925 he studied at a rabbinical seminary in Berlin. In 1925 he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.

He led the Aliyah department of the Jewish Agency until 1948. In 1938 he went on a mission to help Jews in Austria after the Nazi takeover. He met Adolf Eichmann and helped save several thousand Jews of Vienna.

In 1948 he signed the Declaration of Independence and became Minister of Health and Minister of Immigration. He later served as Minister of Internal Affairs, Religions, and Welfare, and was a Knesset member from 1949. He belonged to the dovish camp of religious Zionism and opposed a pre-emptive attack before the Six-Day War.

In 1957 he was badly wounded when Moshe Dwek threw a hand grenade in the Knesset. He died in office in 1970.