Politicsיוסף סרלין

Joseph Serlin

Joseph Serlin was an Israeli lawyer and politician who served in the Knesset from 1949 to 1974 and as Minister of Health from 1952 to 1955.

1906 to 1974Minister of Health, 1952 to 1955Founding the General ZionistsProposing a mixed election system

Born: 24 February 1906, Białystok
Died: 15 January 1974, Israel
Occupation: politician, lawyer
Party: Gahal
Education: Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw

Joseph Serlin was born in 1906 in Białystok

Serlin was born in 1906 in Białystok, then in the Russian Empire. He attended the Hebrew high school there and studied law at the University of Warsaw. He became a lawyer in 1929.

In Poland he was active in the Zionist movement and chaired the Federation of Academic Zionists in Warsaw. In 1930 he became personal secretary to Nahum Sokolow. In 1933 he moved to Mandatory Palestine and worked as a lawyer in Tel Aviv.

He was a founder of the General Zionists and deputy chairman of their world confederation. After 1948 he sat on the Provisional State Council. He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 and served until the end of the seventh Knesset, for the General Zionists, the Liberal Party and Gahal.

In 1952 he was briefly Minister of Transportation and then Minister of Health until 1955. As health minister he worked to expand state control of the health system at the expense of the sick funds. In 1958 he proposed a mixed election system based on voting zones.

Serlin died in 1974. Streets in Tel Aviv and Holon are named after him.