Senetta Josephtal

Senetta Josephtal was born in 1912 in Fürth

Senetta Josephtal was born Senta Punfud in Fürth, Germany, in 1912. She finished the girls' high school in Fürth and began studying law.

Because she was Jewish, she had to stop her studies after the Nazis took power in 1933. That year she joined the HaBonim movement, and from 1934 to 1938 she worked at the HeHalutz Center in Berlin. In 1936 she married Giora Josephtal, who later became a Knesset member and minister.

She immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1938 and helped found Kibbutz Gal'ed in 1945. She held senior posts in the United Kibbutz movement, including General Secretary in 1962 to 1965 and 1967 to 1970, and she chaired the Mekorot water company.

She was elected to the Knesset for Mapai in 1955 and left her seat after 14 months. She returned to the eighth Knesset for the Alignment, replacing Zvi Guershoni after his death, and lost her seat in 1977.

Her husband died in 1962. After leaving public life she worked in production at a kibbutz factory. She died in 2007 and was buried beside her husband at Kibbutz Gal'ed.