Mordechai Nurock

Mordechai Nurock was born in 1879 in Tukums

Nurock was born in 1879 in Tukums, then in the Russian Empire and today in Latvia. His father was a rabbi, and Nurock studied under him and was ordained as a rabbi. He later attended universities in Russia, Germany and Switzerland and earned a PhD in philosophy.

In 1903 he was a delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress for Mizrachi. In 1913 he succeeded his father as rabbi of Jelgava, and in 1915 he moved to Russia, where he helped Jewish refugees during World War I. He helped found the religious group Tradition and Freedom.

He returned to Latvia in 1921 and was elected to the Saeima in 1922, where he led the minorities' bloc. In 1926 the bloc brought down the government, and he formed a new one but declined to lead it. He kept his seat until the parliament was dissolved in 1934.

After the Soviet occupation he was arrested in 1941 and exiled. His wife and two children were killed in the Holocaust. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1947.

He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 and served until his death in 1962. In November 1952 he became Minister of Postal Services and lost the post when a new government formed that December. He also ran for president in 1952 and finished second to Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.