Eliyahu Meridor

Eliyahu Meridor was born in 1914 in Saint Petersburg

Meridor was born Eliyahu Wierzbolowski on 20 July 1914 in Saint Petersburg. His mother was a sister of the translator Emmanuel Olsvanger. He grew up in Grajewo in Poland, where he attended a Tarbut school and became the local Betar commander.

He studied law at the University of Warsaw and was active in the Jewish student organization there. He took the name Meridor from a novel by Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

In 1936 he moved to the Land of Israel and worked as a lawyer. He became a senior Irgun member and its commander in Jerusalem. The British arrested him in 1944 and exiled him to Africa, and he returned in 1946.

He was among the founders of the Herut movement and chaired its Jerusalem branch. He entered the Knesset in 1959 and was reelected in 1961 and 1965. He died in office on 16 October 1966 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot.

In 1943 he married Ra'anana Tenenblatt, later a professor of classical studies. Their 4 children include the politician Dan Meridor and Sallai Meridor, a former ambassador to the United States. A street in Pisgat Ze'ev is named after him.