Efraim Ilin

Efraim Ilin was an Israeli industrialist and Irgun member who founded the Kaiser car plant in Israel.

1912 to 2010Founding Kaiser in Israel1948 arms dealsEarly Irgun activity

Born: 20 February 1912, Kharkiv
Died: 17 September 2010
Occupation: industrialist
Education: Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, University of Liège
Founded: Ashot - Ashkelon Industries Ltd. (1951)

Efraim Ilin was born in 1912 in Kharkiv

Ilin was born in Kharkiv in 1912 to Yosef Ilin and Esther Kunikov, a traditional Zionist family. Hebrew was spoken at home from when he was 6. The family moved to Ness Ziona in Mandatory Palestine.

He studied at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium and played the French horn in its orchestra. He was active in Betar and in a civil defense group that became the core of the Irgun. From 1929 to 1932 he studied economics and commerce at the University of Liège in Belgium.

In 1934 he married Ziporah. Avraham Stern recruited him to the Irgun in 1938, and he reported to Stern and David Raziel. After Raziel was arrested in 1939, some suspected Ilin of betraying him, and a 1960 inquiry cleared him.

In 1948 he negotiated arms deals with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. With Kaiser-Frazer he set up a car plant in Haifa that opened in 1951 and later became known as Kaiser-Ilin. He died in 2010.