Menachem Savidor

Menachem Savidor was born in 1917 in Bakhmut

Menachem Savidor was born Menachem Khodorovsky in Bakhmut in 1917. In 1922 his family moved to Bialystok in Poland. His mother and siblings who stayed in Poland were killed in the Holocaust.

He went to high school in Zambrow in Poland and then studied at Vilnius University. With a Japanese entry visa from Chiune Sugihara, he led a group of young Jews out of Europe and reached the Land of Israel in 1941. After World War II service he studied public administration and economics in France and the United States.

He served in the British Army from 1941 to 1946 and joined the IDF in 1948. He left the IDF in 1953 as a lieutenant colonel.

In 1953 he joined the General Zionists and became deputy director of the Ministry of Transportation. He was director-general of Israel Railways from 1954 to 1964 and resigned about half a year after the 1963 Beit Yehoshua train accident. He then headed Vered, a Rassco subsidiary, and later a citrus export body until 1977.

In 1969 he ran for mayor of Tel Aviv and then headed the Gahal faction on the city council until 1974. He entered the Knesset for Likud in 1977 and was Speaker from 1981 to 1984. After losing his seat, he chaired a public committee on the economy from 1985 and the Fund for the Security of Israel from 1987, and died in 1988.