Yehudit Simhonit

Yehudit Simhonit was born in 1902 in Bereznehuvate

Simhonit was born in 1902 in Nahar-Tov, a Jewish agricultural settlement in the Kherson region of the Russian Empire. She studied at a gymnasium in Kherson and then at a higher agricultural school there. In 1917 she joined the Zionist Student Youth Federation.

In 1920 she married Mordechai, and in 1921 the couple immigrated to the Land of Israel and took the name Simhoni. They were among the founders of Nahalal, the first workers' moshav, where their 3 children were born. In 1931 the family moved to kibbutz Tel Yosef, and she later moved to Geva in 1943.

Her public work focused on the status of working women and equal rights for women and men. In 1924 she was elected to the Women Workers' Council, and in 1934 she helped found the monthly Dvar HaPoelet. She represented Mapai in the fourth Assembly of Representatives and was a delegate to Zionist Congresses.

In 1949 she was elected to the first Knesset on the Mapai list and resigned in 1951. She later served on the Histadrut's coordinating committee and as chief cultural and welfare officer of the IDF Women's Corps, and headed the Histadrut's International Relations Department from 1960 to 1965. In 1965 she left Mapai to help found Rafi and was part of its leadership until 1968.

Her son, Major General Asaf Simhoni, was killed in a plane crash at the end of the Sinai War. She died in 1991.