Zerach Warhaftig

Zerach Warhaftig was born in 1906 in Vawkavysk

Warhaftig was born in 1906 in Volkovysk, then in the Russian Empire and today Vawkavysk in Belarus. His father, Rabbi Yerucham Warhaftig, wrote books on Jewish law. He studied law at the University of Warsaw and later earned a doctorate in law from the Hebrew University.

In Warsaw he was active in the Mizrachi movement and was a delegate to Zionist congresses. When World War II began he fled with his family to Lithuania. There he worked with Nathan Gutwirth and the consuls Chiune Sugihara and Jan Zwartendijk to help Jewish refugees, including Mir Yeshiva students, escape through Japan.

In 1941 he reached Vancouver, Canada, and later worked with the World Jewish Congress. He settled in the Land of Israel in 1947 and signed the Declaration of Independence. From 1948 to 1963 he taught Jewish law at the Hebrew University.

He served in the Knesset from the first to the ninth Knesset for Hapoel HaMizrachi and later the National Religious Party. He was Deputy Minister of Religions and then Minister of Religions from 1961 to 1974. He helped write the Law of Return and retired from the Knesset in 1981.

He received the Israel Prize in 1983 for advancing Hebrew law. His memoir was published in 1998, and he died in 2002.