Isaac-Meir Levin

Isaac-Meir Levin was born in 1893 in Góra Kalwaria

Levin was born in Góra Kalwaria, near Warsaw, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was Rabbi Chanokh Tzvi HaKohen Levin, rabbi of Będzin, and his mother was a daughter of the Ger Rebbe. He studied at yeshiva, received rabbinic ordination and married Devorah Matil Alter, daughter of the Ger Rebbe Avraham Mordechai Alter.

In Poland he became a leader of Agudat Yisrael and was elected to the Warsaw Community Council in 1924. In 1937 he became one of two co-chairmen of the movement's world executive committee. He also helped found the Bais Yaakov school network for girls.

After Germany occupied Poland he helped refugees in Warsaw, and in 1940 he emigrated to Mandatory Palestine. There he headed the local Agudat Yisrael and was active in rescue efforts during the Holocaust. In 1941 he was charged over a transfer of funds and was acquitted.

He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1948 and served as Minister of Welfare in the provisional government and the first governments. He resigned in 1952 over national service for women. He served in the Knesset from 1949 until his death in 1971 and was buried on the Mount of Olives.