Mordechai-Haim Stern

Mordechai-Haim Stern was born in 1914 in Vienna

Stern was born in Vienna in 1914. He began studying medicine at the University of Vienna but did not finish. In 1934 he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.

He studied accounting and worked on moving Jewish assets out of Nazi Germany. He became a senior official at the Anglo-Palestine Bank and also served as an income tax supervisor for the Mandate government.

In 1945 he became deputy director of the Rassco housing company, and in 1957 its director. Under him the company grew and fell into heavy debt. He faced criticism, and in 1967 a report by the Jewish Agency comptroller examined his conduct, which he rejected as one-sided.

In 1942 he helped found the New Aliyah Party, later part of the Progressive Party. In 1959 he joined the Tel Aviv city council. He was elected to the Knesset on the Gahal list in 1965 and sat on the Economics Committee, but was not returned in 1969.

He died in 1975. His son Yaari Ariel Stern fell in the Yom Kippur War. The main entrance plaza of the Tel Aviv exhibition grounds is named after him.