Politicsיונה כסה

Yona Kesse

Yona Kesse was an Israeli politician and trade unionist who served as a Mapai member of the Knesset from 1949 to 1965.

1907 to 1985Mapai member of five KnessetsSecretary of MapaiThe Min HaYesod group

Died: 27 June 1985, Israel
Occupation: politician, trade unionist
Party: Mapai, The Young Worker

Yona Kesse was born in 1907 in Dobre

Kesse was born in 1907 in Dobre, in the Russian Empire, in what is now Ukraine. He was orphaned as a child and lived for a time in the home of the Schneerson family. His parents died in the Ukrainian famine of 1921.

He studied at a heder and joined HeHalutz, which was illegal in Russia. In 1925 he was arrested for Zionist activity, and in 1926 he moved to the Land of Israel and worked as a farm laborer in Rehovot.

He joined Hapoel Hatzair and in 1932 became secretary of the Rehovot Workers Council. He lived in Kfar Bilu and later joined Kvutzat Shiller. He sat on the Haganah regional command in the south and served as secretary of Mapai in 1938, 1939 to 1940 and 1953 to 1956.

He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 and served in five Knessets. In 1964 he left Mapai with the Min HaYesod group, but the House Committee did not recognize his single-member faction. He lost his seat in 1965.

His first wife, Tzipora, died in the Ma'agan disaster in 1954, and he later married Carmela. He died in 1985 and was buried at Kvutzat Shiller.