Mordechai Shatner

Mordechai Shatner was born in 1904 in Sniatyn

Shatner was born in 1904 in Sniatyn, in eastern Galicia. As a youth he joined Hashomer Hatzair and later Hechalutz, and trained in Germany. He moved to the Land of Israel in 1925 and joined kibbutz Ein Harod.

From 1933 to 1935 he organized Hechalutz training in Nazi Germany, where he dealt with Nazi officials including Adolf Eichmann. In 1938 he went to Vienna for Youth Aliyah and then moved to England. He returned in 1941 and headed the Gilboa Regional Council.

In 1945 he joined the leadership of the Jewish National Council for Mapai. The British arrested him on the Black Sabbath in 1946 and held him in Atlit, Rafah and Latrun, where he represented the Jewish detainees. In 1948 he signed the Declaration of Independence and sat on the Provisional State Council.

From 1949 he led the development of Jerusalem for the Finance Ministry. He later served as custodian of absentee property and as head of the Development Authority. From 1955 until his death he was the Finance Ministry's savings commissioner.

He led the founding of Nazareth Illit and was one of the founders of Yad Vashem. He died in Jerusalem in 1964 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot. The Shatner Center in Jerusalem bears his name.