Joshua Matza

Joshua Matza was born in 1931 in Jerusalem

Matza was born in 1931 in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, to a family that came from Ioannina in Greece. At 14 he joined the Lehi underground, posting anti-British flyers and helping hide weapons. In the War of Independence he took part in a failed attempt to bomb an entry into the Old City at the New Gate.

After high school he served in the IDF artillery corps and reached the rank of captain. He studied law and accounting and worked at a Jerusalem accounting firm. He was married and had 4 children.

In 1965 he was elected to the Jerusalem City Council for Herut and served on it for 20 years. In 1969 he became deputy mayor under Teddy Kollek and worked to create gardens and parks. In 1978 he ran for mayor and lost to Kollek.

He entered the Knesset for Likud in 1984. Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him Minister of Health in 1996, a post he held until 1999. Later he initiated an amendment to the Jerusalem Law requiring a majority to change the city's status.

In 2002 he resigned from the Knesset to become president of Israel Bonds and moved to New York. He left the post in 2011 and later headed the Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation. He died in 2020.