Elazar Granot

Elazar Granot was born in 1927 in Jerusalem

Elazar Granot was born in Jerusalem in 1927, the son of Moshe Greenhut and grandson of Rabbi Dr. Elazar HaLevi Greenhut. He studied in Rehovot and at the Pardes Hanna Agricultural High School.

From 1944 to 1946 he served in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army and fought in Italy. He then studied philosophy, sociology, Hebrew literature and Bible at the Hebrew University. In the 1948 war he fought in the Etzioni Brigade and later in the Negev with the 8th Brigade.

During the siege of Jerusalem he married Malka, and in 1951 they moved to kibbutz Sasa. In 1955 Malka was killed by infiltrators who attacked her bus. In 1958 he moved with his second wife Ilana and the children to kibbutz Shoval.

He held posts in Mapam from 1962 and became its secretary general in 1985. He was elected to the Knesset for the Alignment in 1981, was re-elected in 1984, and lost his seat in 1988. From 1994 to 1996 he was ambassador to South Africa.

His poems and his articles on society and politics appeared in journals and in papers such as Al HaMishmar and Davar. He died in 2013 and was buried at kibbutz Shoval. In 2016 a newspaper report based on the Mitrokhin Archive claimed he had contact with the KGB, and his son denied the claims.