Jacob Shimshon Shapira

Jacob Shimshon Shapira was born in 1902 in Kropyvnytskyi

Shapira was born in 1902 in Yelisavetgrad in the Russian Empire, now Kropyvnytskyi in Ukraine. He studied at a yeshiva and then medicine at the University of Kharkiv. He was active in the Zionist socialist movement and was imprisoned for it from 1923 to 1924.

In 1924 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and worked in the orchards of Petah Tikva with a Conquest of Labor group. He was among the founders of kibbutz Giv'at HaShlosha and served as secretary of Ahdut HaAvoda in Jerusalem. He studied law in Jerusalem and qualified as a lawyer.

In 1934 he moved to Haifa and practiced law there until 1948, representing the Haganah before the Mandate authorities. After the state was founded he became Director General of the Justice Ministry and Attorney General from 1948 to 1950. In 1948 he led an inquiry into killings during Operation Hiram, and his findings stayed classified.

He entered the Knesset for Mapai in 1951 and left in 1955 after allegations about his role in the oil business. In 1965 he headed the Mapai party court that expelled Ben-Gurion and his allies. He was Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1973, apart from a short break, and was elected to the seventh Knesset for the Alignment in 1969.

As minister he advanced laws including the Commissions of Inquiry Law in 1968 and laws on spousal property and labor courts. After the Yom Kippur War he resigned when his demand to dismiss Moshe Dayan was refused. He died in 1993.