Meir Nitzan

Meir Nitzan was born in 1931 in Bucharest

Meir Nitzan was born Meir Mintz in Bucharest, Romania, in 1931, to Michael and Rachel. He came to the Land of Israel at 16 for Zionist reasons, after a stay in a detention camp in Cyprus. He then lived in the Pardes Hanna transit camp.

He joined the IDF at 18 and served mainly in the Ordnance Corps. He studied industrial engineering and management at the Technion. He left the army in 1979 as a colonel and later returned as a brigadier general.

In 1983 he was elected mayor of Rishon LeZion and was reelected four times. He set up 3 municipal companies and in 1988 founded the city's symphony orchestra. While in office he was convicted of breach of trust for hiring services without a tender, and the judge ruled the offense did not carry moral turpitude.

He moved from the Labor Party to Kadima and chaired its council. He lost the 2008 mayoral election to Dov Zur and left Kadima in January 2009, saying he would vote Likud. From 2011 to 2013 he headed the appointed committee running Lod, and he died on 19 April 2025.