Menachem Bader

Menachem Bader was born in 1895 in Dukla

Menachem Bader was born on 20 September 1895 in Dukla, Galicia, to Hava and Yosef Bader. His family moved to Germany during his youth. He studied at a gymnasium in Krakow and finished high school in Cologne, then studied economics at the University of Cologne.

In World War I he was an army officer, took a flying course and was wounded. He emigrated to the Land of Israel in 1920 and soon joined the Haganah planning committee. In 1923 he was among the founders of kibbutz Mizra.

He helped found the Solel Boneh construction company and raised funds for it in Germany and Romania in 1924. In 1930 he joined Hashomer Hatzair and in the 1930s wrote plays about workers and pioneers. In February 1943 he went to Constantinople as a rescue emissary.

In 1948 he became Director General of the Ministry of Labor and Construction. He sat in the first Knesset for Mapam from 1949 and lost his seat in 1951. From 1955 to 1962 he was Director General of the Ministry of Development.

In 1964 he became economic coordinator of the Kibbutz Artzi. In 1982 he was elected to the wider leadership of the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim. He died on 31 January 1985 and was buried at his kibbutz.