Jacob Berman

Jacob Berman was born in 1878 in Salantai

Berman was born in 1878 in Salantai, in the Kovno province of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. His father, Yehezkel Meir Berman, was a nephew of Rabbi Israel Salanter. He studied with the town rabbi and at the Telz yeshiva, was ordained as a rabbi, and later studied in Memel and Berlin.

From 1900 he was active in Zionism and education, teaching in Memel and later in Odessa. He represented the Mizrachi movement at the 1902 all-Russian Zionist conference in Minsk and initiated the founding of the Lida yeshiva in 1903. He also studied law, philosophy and education at the University of Saint Petersburg.

He served as rabbi of Berdychiv from 1910 to 1920 and helped refugees during World War I. After the revolution he held posts in the Jewish leadership of Ukraine. He was arrested in 1919 for Zionist activity, left the country secretly in 1920, and reached the Land of Israel in 1921.

He headed the Netzach Israel school in Petah Tikva, then served as chief inspector of Mizrachi schools and deputy head of the education department of the National Council from 1924 to 1944. He chaired Mizrachi in the Land of Israel from 1944 to 1948. In 1950 he founded the Torah Pedagogical Institute in Jerusalem to train teachers, and led it until his death in 1974.

The institute moved to Rehovot in 1955 and was later named Moreshet Yaakov after him. He received the Israel Prize for education and the Yakir Yerushalayim award in 1968. His son Yitzhak Berman served as Speaker of the Knesset.