Mordechai Mano

Mordechai Mano was born in 1922 in Thessaloniki

Mordechai Mano was born in 1922 in Thessaloniki, Greece, to a shipping family. His father, Samuel Mano, ran a fleet of self-propelled barges there. In 1932 the family moved to Mandatory Palestine as part of an immigration wave organized by Abba Hushi to strengthen Jewish labor at the port of Haifa.

He learned the trade from his father. He started as a messenger and port clerk at the Nisim Meshulam shipping agency and later worked at the Atid shipping company. He spoke 7 languages, including Turkish and Arabic.

In 1943 he opened his own shipping agency in Haifa, which later bought a small wooden ship to import food from Turkey. In 1956 he became administrator and senior partner of Netivei Hayam Hatihon, set up with the Ofer Brothers Group. The company carried cargo to Israel across the Mediterranean, especially from the Adriatic.

At the government's initiative, he organized a trial shipment of cement from Haifa to Eilat on the ship Panagaya. In 1965 the partnership was split, and he founded the family company Mano Nativei Yam, which worked in the ports of Haifa and Ashdod.

He died in 1969, leaving a wife, two daughters, two sons and a grandson. His sons Samuel and Moshe later ran their own shipping companies. In 2020 a square in Haifa was named after him.