Isaac Gruenbaum

Isaac Gruenbaum was born in 1879 in Warsaw

Gruenbaum was born in Warsaw in 1879, the son of Yehoshua. He was educated in Płońsk and studied law at the University of Warsaw. As a student he became active in Zionism and in journalism, editing Ha-Zefirah, Ha-Olam and the Yiddish daily Haynt.

In Poland he led the Radical Zionist faction Al Hamishmar and entered the Sejm in 1919. In 1922 he organized the Bloc of National Minorities, which joined Jews, Germans, Ukrainians and others. He opposed Agudat Israel and lost his Sejm seat in 1930 to Rabbi Aharon Levin.

He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1933 after joining the Jewish Agency Executive. In 1942 he was chosen to head a 12-member Rescue Committee for European Jews, whose efforts achieved little. In 1946 the British arrested him and held him at Latrun.

He was one of the 13 members of the provisional leadership and signed the Declaration of Independence. From 1948 to 1949 he was the first Minister of the Interior. He moved from the General Zionists toward Mapam, and his independent list failed to enter the first Knesset.

He edited books including the Encyclopedia of Diaspora Communities. In 1952 he ran for President and lost to Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. He lived his last years on Kibbutz Gan Shmuel and died in 1970.