Jacob Zur

Jacob Zur was born in 1937 in Haifa

Jacob Zur was born Jacob Steinberg in Haifa on 4 April 1937. He grew up in the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood, attended the Hebrew Reali School and was a member of the HaMahanot HaOlim youth movement.

Through the youth movement he joined the Nahal and served in the Nahal reconnaissance unit at Yotvata. In 1957 he joined kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Heh, where he worked in farming. He later studied bible and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and taught in schools in the kibbutz, Givat Brenner and Kfar Menachem.

From 1976 to 1981 he was secretary of HaKibbutz HaMeuhad and worked toward its merger into the United Kibbutz Movement. He entered the Knesset in 1981 and became Minister of Immigrant Absorption in 1984, during Operation Moses and the start of immigration from the Soviet Union. He introduced direct absorption through an absorption basket, letting immigrants choose where to live.

After the 1988 elections he was Minister of Health until 1990. In 1992 Yitzhak Rabin appointed him Minister of Agriculture, although he had not been elected to the Knesset, and he served until 1996.

From 1996 to 2010 he chaired Agrexco. He earned a doctorate from the University of Haifa in 2012 and published a book on Tabenkin and HaKibbutz HaMeuhad in 2015. He is married to Hadassah and has 4 children.