Isaac Moda'i

Isaac Moda'i was born in 1926 in Tel Aviv

Moda'i was born in Tel Aviv in 1926 as Yitzhak Madzovitch and grew up in a religious home. His father was secretary-general of the Egged cooperative. He attended Geula high school and joined the Haganah at 14.

He studied chemical engineering at the Technion and qualified as an engineer. He later studied law in Tel Aviv and law and economics at the London School of Economics, and became a lawyer.

In 1948 he served as a platoon commander and then a company commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. He later commanded a battalion and was deputy military attaché in London from 1951 to 1953. He left the IDF in 1953 as a lieutenant colonel.

From 1961 to 1977 he managed the Revlon cosmetics factory. He joined the Liberal Party in 1961 and sat on the Herzliya city council from 1969 to 1973. Elected to the Knesset for Likud in 1974, he served as Minister of Energy and also as Minister of Communications.

After 1984 he became Minister of Finance, and in 1985 he and Shimon Peres devised an economic stabilization plan. In 1990 he and four other members left Likud and formed what became the New Liberal Party. The party did not pass the threshold in 1992, and he died in 1998.