Zvi Dinstein

Zvi Dinstein was born in 1926 in Tel Aviv

Zvi Dinstein was born in Tel Aviv in 1926. He attended the Commercial High School and served as a policeman in the Jewish Settlement Police in Kfar Giladi. His brother is Yoram Dinstein, an expert in international law, and he was married to Aya, the daughter of Arthur Ruppin.

He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in 1947 moved to study law at the University of Geneva, where he earned a doctorate. From 1948 he worked on immigration and arms procurement in Europe and headed the Ministry of Defense delegation there.

He held several posts in the Ministry of Finance, including supervisor of foreign currency and head of the Investment Authority. In 1965 he became a special adviser to Defense Minister Levi Eshkol on procurement and research. From 1960 to 1989 he chaired the Israeli Petroleum and Energy Institute.

He was elected to the Knesset in 1965 and appointed Deputy Minister of Defense in 1966. He left that post in 1967 and became Deputy Minister of Finance, serving until he lost his seat in the 1973 elections.

From 1972 to 1977 he chaired the Development and Industrial Bank, and then served as economic attaché to North America. He later chaired companies and sat on the boards of the Weizmann Institute and universities. He died in 2012, and a street in Herzliya is named after him.