Hillel Seidel

Hillel Seidel was born in 1920 in Kraków

Seidel was born in Kraków, Poland, in 1920. He studied in a heder and a yeshiva and later at the College of Economic Studies in Vilnius. He was a member of the Akiva youth movement.

During World War II he took part in the anti-Nazi underground in the Vilna Ghetto. He headed the Jewish underground in the Klooga camp near Tallinn, Estonia. After the war he led the Akiva movement in Poland and was a commander in the Berihah movement until 1947.

He immigrated to Israel in March 1948 and headed the immigrant absorption department of the World Confederation of General Zionists until 1952. He was also secretary general of HaOved HaTzioni and a leader of the Progressive Party. From 1952 to 1973 he worked in the Histadrut, where he headed its immigrant absorption and pensions departments.

He entered the Knesset in 1974 on the Independent Liberals list. In February 1977 he left the party and formed the Ahdut faction, which joined Likud. He was reelected on the Likud list, chaired the Public Petitions Committee, and left politics after the 1981 elections. He died in 1999.