Dov Joseph

Dov Joseph was born in 1899 in Montreal

Dov Joseph was born Bernard Joseph in Montreal, Canada, in 1899. He studied at McGill University, Université Laval and the University of London, and qualified as a lawyer. In 1917 he founded the Canadian Young Judaea Zionist youth movement.

During World War I he helped organize Canadian volunteers for the Jewish Legion and came to the Land of Israel with it in 1918. He settled there in 1921 and worked as a lawyer in Mandatory Palestine. In 1933 he joined Mapai and represented the Arlosoroff family after the Arlosoroff murder.

He served as legal adviser to the Jewish Agency and joined its executive in 1945. In December 1947 he was named head of the Jerusalem Emergency Committee, and on August 2, 1948, he was appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem. His daughter was killed in the war in October 1948.

Elected to the first Knesset in 1949, he served as Minister of Rationing and Supply during the austerity period. He later held posts including Agriculture, Transportation, Justice, Trade and Industry, Development and Health. He lost his seat in 1959 but served again as Minister of Justice until the 1965 elections.

In 1960 he published "The Faithful City" about the 1948 siege of Jerusalem. In it he criticized commander David Shaltiel over the fall of the Old City, which caused a public storm. He died in 1980.