Shlomo-Israel Ben-Meir

Shlomo-Israel Ben-Meir was born in 1910 in Warsaw

Ben-Meir was born Shlomo-Israel Rosenberg in Warsaw in 1910. His father was Rabbi Meir Yehoshua Rosenberg. As a young man he moved to the United States.

He studied at the Yitzchak Elchanan yeshiva, Yeshiva University and New York University. He was ordained as a rabbi and earned a doctorate in law.

He practiced law in New York until 1940, then became rabbi of Hartford, Connecticut. From 1937 to 1941 he sat on the boards of the Jewish National Fund and Keren Hayesod in the United States. He was active in the Mizrachi movement.

He moved to Israel in 1950 and became world chairman of Mizrachi. He entered the Knesset in 1952 and helped merge Mizrachi and Hapoel HaMizrachi into the National Religious Party. He served as deputy minister of welfare, internal affairs and health.

In 1954 the attorney general sought to try him, and his immunity was lifted with his consent. An examining judge acquitted him. He died of a heart attack in 1971, and his son Yehuda took his seat.