Reuven Barkat

Reuven Barkat was born in 1906 in Tauragė

Reuven Barkat was born Reuven Borstein in 1906 in Tauragė, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was Rabbi Avraham Aharon Borstein. He studied in a heder and a yeshiva, then at a Hebrew gymnasium in Lithuania.

He helped found the Young Pioneer movement in Lithuania and was active in the Young Hebrew movement. He studied law and literature in Paris and Strasbourg and chaired the Union of Hebrew Students.

He moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1926. He worked in the settlement department of HaMerkaz HaHakla'i and then in the transfer of Jewish property from Germany. From 1940 to 1946 he was general secretary of the National Committee for the Jewish Soldier.

In 1946 he joined the Histadrut's political department and later headed it, as well as its Arab department. He left his Histadrut posts in 1960 amid tension with Pinhas Lavon. That year he became ambassador to Norway, and from 1962 to 1966 he was general secretary of Mapai.

He was elected to the Knesset for the Alignment in 1965 and became Speaker in 1969. He died in office in 1972 and was buried on the Mount of Olives. Streets in Holon and Netanya bear his name.