Yosef Shofman

Yosef Shofman was born in 1903 in Warsaw

Shofman was born in Warsaw in 1903. As a young man he worked in his family's cosmetics factory and joined Hashomer Hatzair. He studied law at the University of Warsaw and qualified as a lawyer.

From 1923 he was active in the Yardenia Zionist student movement. He ran the Jewish National Fund's press bureau in Poland in 1925 and 1926, then reported from France for the Polish language Jewish paper Nasz Przegląd. He later joined the Revisionist movement, entered its central committee in 1930 and in 1937 became chairman of the New Zionist Organization in Poland.

In 1940 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and managed the Adif cosmetics factory with his brother-in-law. He also managed the Urieli company and headed the board of Otzar HaAmami. In 1946 he became chairman of the local New Zionist Organization, was arrested by the British authorities, and in 1947 went to South Africa as an emissary of the movement.

He was elected to the Knesset on the Herut list in 1955 and reelected in 1959, 1961 and 1965, losing his seat in 1969. From 1964 to 1966 he also chaired Herut's directorate. He served as ambassador to Venezuela from 1971 to 1974 and died in 1978.