Peretz Bernstein

Peretz Bernstein was born in 1890 in Meiningen

Bernstein was born Shlomo Fritz Bernstein in Meiningen in the German Empire in 1890. His father, Shmuel, was a merchant. He studied at a gymnasium in Meiningen and later trained in the grain trade.

In 1909 he moved to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where he later ran his own firm importing grain and coffee. He served in the German army in 1911 and 1912. He joined the Zionist Organization in 1917, edited a Zionist weekly from 1925 to 1935, and published a book on antisemitism in 1926.

He moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1936 and became an editor of the HaBoker newspaper. In 1943 he became president of the General Zionists. From 1946 he headed the Jewish Agency's trade and industry department.

He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1948 and served as Minister of Trade and Industry in the provisional government. He was a Knesset member from 1949 to 1965 and returned to the trade ministry in the fourth and fifth governments. He ran for president in 1952 and 1963 and lost both times.

In 1961 he became one of two presidents of the new Liberal Party and later oversaw its alliance with Herut to form Gahal. He left the Knesset in 1965. He died in 1971 and was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery.