David Remez

David Remez was born in 1886 in Kopyś

Remez was born David Drabkin in 1886 in Kopys, in the Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire. He studied Talmud with his grandfather and later attended a gymnasium. He worked as a teacher and studied law in Constantinople, where he first met David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.

In 1913 he moved to the Land of Israel with his wife and worked as a farm laborer in Be'er Tuvia, Karkur and Zikhron Ya'akov. In 1916 he helped found a health fund for Samaria workers. He later moved to Tel Aviv and joined the labor movement's leadership.

From 1921 to 1929 he headed the Histadrut's public works office, later called Solel Boneh, and sat on the Tel Aviv city council. He was a founding member of Mapai and served as Secretary of the Histadrut. He then chaired the Jewish National Council and was held in Latrun after the British arrests of Operation Agatha.

He signed the Declaration of Independence and became Minister of Transportation on 14 May 1948. In his term rail service resumed and El Al was founded. He was a Mapai member of the first Knesset, became Minister of Education in 1950, and died in office in 1951, the first Israeli minister to do so.