Yehuda Leib Maimon

Yehuda Leib Maimon was born in 1875 in Mărculești

Maimon was born Yehuda Leib Fishman in Mărculești, Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire. His sister Ada Maimon later served in the Knesset for Mapai. He grew up at first among Hasidim.

He studied in yeshivas in Lithuania and was ordained as a rabbi by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, author of the Aruch HaShulchan. He served as a rabbi in Bessarabia, was arrested for Zionist activity, and helped found the Mizrachi movement in 1902.

He moved to the Land of Israel in 1913 but was expelled by the Turks during World War I and went to the United States. After returning in 1919 he led Mizrachi in the country and helped Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook set up the Chief Rabbinate. In 1936 he founded Mossad Harav Kook, and in 1946 the British held him during Operation Agatha.

He signed the Declaration of Independence and became Minister of Religions and Minister of War Victims in the provisional government. He entered the first Knesset in 1949 for the United Religious Front and lost his seat in 1951. He received the Israel Prize in 1958 and died in Tel Aviv in 1962.