Politicsיגאל הורביץ

Yigal Hurvitz

Yigal Hurvitz was an Israeli farmer, businessman and politician who served as Minister of Finance and in other cabinet posts in the late 1970s and 1980s.

1918 to 1994Minister of Finance, 1979 to 1981Resigning over Camp David AccordsFounding the Ometz party

Born: 15 October 1918, Nachlat Yehudah
Died: 10 January 1994, Rishon LeZion
Occupation: politician, businessperson
Party: Rafi

Yigal Hurvitz was born in 1918 in Nachlat Yehudah

Hurvitz was born in 1918 in Nahlat Yehuda and grew up in Nahalal. From 1938 to 1941 he sat on the secretariat of HaNoar HaOved youth movement.

In World War II he volunteered for the British Army and joined the Jewish Brigade when it was set up in 1944. After the war he settled in Kfar Warburg and ran a dairy and poultry farm.

In business he owned factories for ice cream and plastic cups. In 1970 he bought two dairy firms near bankruptcy and merged them, and in 1972 he bought the ice cream company Adnir.

He joined Mapai in 1961, moved to Ben-Gurion's Rafi in 1965 and to the National List in 1969, when he entered the Knesset. He was Minister of Industry and Tourism from 1977 and resigned in 1978 over the Camp David Accords. He served as Minister of Finance from November 1979 to January 1981, when the shekel replaced the lira.

He later moved between Telem and his own lists, and as head of Ometz was Minister without Portfolio from 1984 to 1988. He rejoined Likud in 1987, lost his seat in 1992 and died in 1994.