Eliyahu Dobkin

Eliyahu Dobkin was born in 1898 in Babruysk

Dobkin was born in 1898 in Babruysk, in the Russian Empire, to a religious Zionist family. His father, Yosef, worked in lumber and banking and was active in the Mizrahi movement. After World War I the family fled the Bolsheviks and settled in Białystok, Poland.

He studied in a heder and a gymnasium, and later in Kharkiv. There he founded the Zionist student group HaHaver in 1914, and in 1917 he joined HeHalutz. In 1921 he was elected general secretary of the world HeHalutz movement in Warsaw.

In 1932 he moved to Mandatory Palestine with his wife and daughter and settled in Tel Aviv, joining the Histadrut. From 1936 he worked in the Jewish Agency, and during World War II he headed its immigration department, dealing with rescue and illegal immigration.

He was a designated signatory of the Declaration of Independence in 1948 but was in besieged Jerusalem, so he signed later. He headed Keren Hayesod until 1961 and the Jewish Agency's youth and HeHalutz department until 1968.

An art collector, he chaired the Bezalel museum and helped found the Israel Museum, serving on its board until his death in 1976. He donated a collection of ancient glass to the museum.