Oved Ben-Ami

Oved Ben-Ami was born in 1905 in Petah Tikva

Oved Ben-Ami was born Oved Dankner in Petah Tikva in 1905. His father Meir, from Romania, was among the first settlers of Petah Tikva, and his mother Shoshana came from the Bilu movement. He had both a religious and a secular education and joined Zionist youth groups.

At 15 he began reporting for the newspaper Doar HaYom, and later joined its board and changed his name to Ben-Ami. He was a leader of the Bnei Binyamin settlement group. In 1928 he went to the United States with Itamar Ben-Avi to raise money for a new town, Netanya.

He headed Netanya from its early years and served as its mayor, not continuously, until 1974. He helped start the local diamond industry and founded the Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association in 1940. In 1947 the British held him in the Latrun detention camp.

In 1948 he backed the founding of the Maariv newspaper and headed its board. With Philip Klutznick he set up a company that built Ashdod and shaped its design. He also helped found the Movement for Greater Israel after the Six-Day War.

He was married to Yaffa and had three daughters. He died in 1988, and streets in Netanya and Ashdod bear his name.