BINYUMIN-HERZL BERGER

BINYUMIN-HERZL BERGER (August 31, 1904-August 28, 1962)

     He was born in Minsk, Byelorussia.  His father Yitskhok-Yoysef, a well-known Zionist activist, was among the first leaders of the Minsk labor Zionists.  He studied in a public senior high school.  He was a member, 1919-1921, of the illegal party Hashomer Hatsair (The young guard) in Soviet Russia.  In 1921 he moved to Poland, where he was active among the Bialystok Poale-Tsiyon (right).  From Poland he moved on to Germany, where he worked as a publisher and, simultaneously, studied law in the University of Berlin; he received the title of Doctor of Juridical Science.  In 1932 he returned to Poland and settled in Warsaw.  He was a member of the central committee of Poale-Tsiyon (Zionist socialists), and he belonged to the editorial board of the daily newspaper Dos vort (The word), in which he published articles on current themes.  From 1934 he was living in Palestine, and there he contributed to Davar (Word) and various other publications of the Mapai Party, and he was a representative of Mapai in the Knesset.  He also published articles in Undzer vort (Our word) in Paris and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York, among others.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the founders and builders of Israel) (Tel Aviv, 1947-1971), vol. 3, p. 1920; Who Is Who in Israel (Tel Aviv, 1952), p. 146.