Jacob Meridor

Jacob Meridor was born in 1913 in Lipno

Meridor was born Yaakov Viniarsky in 1913 in Lipno, Poland, to a Jewish merchant family. He joined the Betar movement in 1930 and later took the Hebrew name Meridor. He studied law at the University of Warsaw.

He immigrated to Palestine in 1932 and joined the Irgun. After David Raziel was killed on a mission in Iraq in May 1941, Meridor became Irgun commander, and in December 1943 he handed command to Menachem Begin and became his deputy. In February 1945 he was handed over to the British and held in camps in Africa, escaping in 1948 after several attempts.

A founder of Herut, he was elected to the first Knesset. He left for business, and his canned meat import company was bought by the government. He returned to the Knesset in 1955 and served until 1969, sitting on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

With Mila Brenner he founded a fishing company in 1960 and a refrigerated shipping company in 1962, which at its height operated 42 ships. The company faced liquidity problems after the 1973 oil crisis and collapsed. In 1981 he returned to the Knesset and served as Minister of Economy until 1984. He died in 1995.