Nahum Het

Nahum Het was born in 1896 in Odesa

Het was born in 1896 in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire, to Dina and Meir Het, a merchant. He joined Zionist activity young and was a member of Tzeiri Zion. He was arrested in 1912 and 1915 over his work in Zionist student groups, and he studied at a gymnasium and at the university in Odessa.

He came to the Land of Israel in 1919 and settled in Haifa in 1920. After studying law and qualifying as a lawyer, he worked for Avraham Weinshal in Haifa and opened his own office in 1927. He later brought petitions to the High Court against local authorities, and one ruling set out the principle that an authority may act only within the powers the law gives it.

He was legal adviser to the Haganah from 1947 to 1948 and then the first legal adviser of the Ministry of Defense. In that role he drafted the 1948 emergency regulations that set up military law in the IDF. He sat on the Jewish National Council from 1944 to 1948.

He led the Haifa branch of the General Zionists from 1949 and sat on the Haifa city council. Elected to the Knesset in 1951, he chaired the Interior Committee and lost his seat in 1955. He also led Maccabi bodies, was the first president of the Olympic Committee of Israel from 1951, and became president of the World Maccabi Federation in 1957.

He married Michal Levin, and they had 2 children, Meir and Edna. He died on 15 January 1990, and a street in Haifa bears his name.