Eliyahu Berligne

Eliyahu Berligne was born in 1866 in Mahilyow

Berligne was born in 1866 in Mahilyow, then in the Russian Empire and today in Belarus. His father Avraham was a wealthy follower of the Jewish Enlightenment. He received a Jewish education, attended a Russian gymnasium and completed law studies at Moscow University.

He settled in Tsaritsyn and set up a timber factory there. He was active in Hovevei Zion and attended the early Zionist Congresses, including the first in 1897. He opposed the Uganda Program, visited the Land of Israel in 1905 and then founded an investment company to develop industry there.

In 1907 he immigrated and settled in Jaffa. He founded olive oil and soap factories in the Haifa and Gush Dan area that employed only Jewish workers. He was among the founders of Ahuzat Bayit, chaired the board of the Herzliya Gymnasium and managed Bank Hapoalim from 1921 to 1925.

He served in the four Assemblies of Representatives from 1920 to 1948 and sat on the leadership of the Jewish National Council. As a member of the Provisional State Council, he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1948, but illness kept him from the ceremony and he signed weeks later. He was a founder of the Progressive Party.

He was married to Tsita Polyakov. He died in Tel Aviv on 25 February 1959 and was buried in the Trumpeldor Cemetery. A street in Tel Aviv bears his name.