Chaim Oron

Chaim Oron was born in 1940 in Givatayim

Oron was born in Givatayim in 1940 to parents who came from Poland. His father worked in a textile factory and his mother kept the home. He attended Tichon Hadash high school and was active in Hashomer Hatzair, where he got the nickname Jumes.

He joined a Nahal group in 1958 and served in the airborne Nahal. He and his wife Nili settled at kibbutz Lahav, where he farmed, taught and managed the Dolev plastics plant. He led Hashomer Hatzair and was national secretary of Kibbutz Artzi twice.

Oron helped found Peace Now and B'Tselem. He entered the Knesset for Mapam in 1988 and later served for Meretz. He was treasurer of the Histadrut and helped pass the National Health Insurance Law.

In 1999 he became Minister of Agriculture in Ehud Barak's government, and he left the Knesset in 2000. He returned in 2003 and was one of the initiators of the Geneva Initiative. In 2008 he was elected leader of Meretz.

After Meretz won 3 seats in 2009, he stayed on as leader. He resigned from the Knesset in March 2011 and was replaced as party leader by Zehava Galon in 2012. He then became chairman of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and still lives at Lahav.