Politicsשרה שטרן-קטן

Sara Stern-Katan

Sara Stern-Katan was an Israeli social worker and National Religious Party politician who served in the Knesset from 1977 to 1981.

1919 to 2001National Religious Party Knesset memberChairing the Emunah women's movementSocial work and vocational guidanceIsrael Prize laureate

Born: 4 June 1919, Łódź
Died: 23 September 2001, Israel
Occupation: politician, social worker
Party: National Religious Party
Education: Simmons University

Sara Stern-Katan was born in 1919 in Łódź

Sara Stern-Katan was born in Łódź, Poland, and grew up in a religious Zionist home. She attended the Hebrew gymnasium and was active in the Bnei Akiva movement.

During World War II she and her family were sent to the Łódź Ghetto, where they lived from 1940 to 1944. There she helped set up Bnei Akiva agricultural training groups with educational activity. Near the end of the war she was sent to Auschwitz and other camps, and after the Red Army freed her she helped survivors before their immigration.

She immigrated in 1947 and lived at Kvutzat Yavne. She studied social work at the Hebrew University and earned a master's degree at Simmons College in Boston. She worked in vocational guidance for girls, as a regional supervisor in government ministries, and lectured in social work at Bar-Ilan University.

In 1977 she was elected to the Ninth Knesset on the National Religious Party list and sat on committees including Education and Culture and Labor and Welfare. She left the Knesset in 1981. From 1984 to 1990 she chaired the Emunah women's movement, and in later years she was active at Yad Vashem.

She received the Israel Prize in 1998. She died in 2001 and was buried at Kvutzat Yavne.