Shmuel Katz

Shmuel Katz was born in 1914 in Johannesburg

Katz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Alexander and Luba Katz. He joined the Betar movement in 1930. He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and headed the New Zionist Organization in South Africa.

In 1936 he moved to Mandatory Palestine and joined the Irgun. Jabotinsky sent him to London, where he edited The Jewish Standard. He returned in 1946 and joined the Irgun command, handling foreign relations and serving as its spokesman.

Katz was a founder of the Herut movement and a member of the first Knesset. In 1951 he left politics and founded the Karni publishing house. In 1977 Menachem Begin made him an adviser on information abroad, a post he left in 1978 over differences on peace proposals with Egypt.

He wrote Battleground on the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a 2 volume biography of Jabotinsky. He also wrote a column in The Jerusalem Post for many years. He later was active in Tehiya and in Herut, The National Movement, and died in 2008.