Yerahmiel Assa

Yerahmiel Assa was born in 1919 in Soviet Union

Yerahmiel Assa was born Yerahmiel Asailov in the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union in 1919. He moved with his family to Mandate Palestine in 1924 and grew up in Tel Aviv.

He studied at the HaNoar HaOved school and at the Kibbutz Seminar in Tel Aviv. He was active in the HaNoar HaOved youth movement. He was among the founders of kibbutz Hulata, where he worked as a teacher and educator.

As an emissary of Mossad LeAliyah Bet, he worked in Iraq to bring its Jews to the country. He later joined the directorate of the Jewish Agency department for Middle Eastern Jews, and in 1953 and 1954 he went on missions to Iran, Turkey and Iraq.

Assa was a member of Ahdut HaAvoda and ran on its list in the 1955 elections without winning a seat. He entered the Knesset in 1958, replacing Avraham Abaas after his death, and sat on several committees. He lost his seat in the 1959 elections.

He received the Yigal Allon Prize for Pioneering in 2005. He died in 2011 and was buried at his kibbutz. He was survived by his wife Miriam, three daughters and a son.