PINKHES
LAVON-LUBYANIKER (PINḤAS
LAVON) (July 12, 1904-January 24, 1976)
The adopted name of Pinkhes Lubyaniker,
he was born in Kapitshintse (Kopychyntsi, Kopyczyńce), Ternopil district,
eastern Galicia. He was descended from a
rabbinical pedigree. He was the son of
Avrom-Yoysef Lubyaniker, author of Ḥut hameshulash birke yosef
(The threefold cord beside Yosef). He
studied in religious elementary school and in a Polish high school in Ternopil,
and he later graduated from the law faculty of Lemberg University. At age fourteen he became active in Hashomer
(The guard), later known as Hashomer Hatsair (The young guard), and in 1920 he
joined Tseire-Tsiyon (Young Zionists) and Hitaḥdut (the “union” of young
Zionists). In 1924 he was one of the
founders of the Galician Gordonia and wrote for and edited all of its
publications in Hebrew and in Yiddish. He was a cofounder in 1927 of the Gordonia
movement in Poland and one of the main managers of the assembly of the Gordonia
world movement in Danzig. In 1929 he
made aliya with the first agricultural collective of Gordonia to Israel; he was
with the settlements in Givat Bosel and Hadera, where he worked as a wage
laborer. Over the years 1935-1937, he
was secretary of Histadrut (Federation of Labor). He was a Mapai delegate to Zionist congresses. From 1945 he was chairman of the construction
cooperative of Histadrut, “Solel Boneh” (Paving [and] building). He was selected in 1948 as a deputy to the
first Knesset. He chaired the labor
office of the government and was a member of the commission for foreign and
security affairs. He was minister of
agriculture (1950-1951) and minister without portfolio (1953). From January 1954 until February 1955, he was
defense minister in the cabinet of Moshe Sharett (Shertok). He wrote under both names in both Hebrew and
Yiddish, principally on Zionist matters, as well as on the problems of general
Jewish and specifically the Israeli labor movement. In pamphlet form, he published: (as Pinkhes
Lubyaniker), Der mehus funem revizyonizm, in kamf gegen der
natsyonalistisher avanture in tsienizm (The essence of Revisionism,
in the fight against nationalistic adventure in Zionism) (Warsaw-Lemberg,
1927), 27 pp., second edition (Warsaw, 1934); Yesodot
(Foundations) (Tel Aviv, 1941), 200 pp.; Tsum
kheshbn fun a tkufe (Toward an accounting for the era) (Tel Aviv, 1949),
29 pp.; Fir yor histadrut-tetikeyt (Four
years of Histadrut activities) (Tel Aviv, 1949), 62 pp., in Hebrew translation
as Mehistadrut yeladim litenuat-noar (Tel
Aviv: Gordonia-Makabi hatsair, n.d.), 30 pp.; Mifal
arba shanim (The work of four years) (Tel Aviv, 1949), 47 pp.; (as
P. Lavon), Dos is “kheres” (This is “freedom”)
(Tel Aviv, n.d.), 15 pp., in Hebrew, Zot hi ḥerut, 15 pp.; Maasim
umeshimot (Stories and objectives) (Tel Aviv, 1958), 30 pp.; and
Darkha shel mifleget poale erets yisrael
bahistadrut (The way of Mapai in the Federation of Labor) (Tel
Aviv, 1959), 40 pp.; among others. He
also wrote in Yiddish under the name P. Lubyaniker: Maymorim,
fun zayn bukh “yesoydes” (Essays, from the book Yesodot),
translated from Hebrew (Lodz, September 1946), 77 pp. He also published articles in Davar (Word), Hapoel
hatsair (The young worker), Yisrael (Israel),
and Di goldene keyt (The
golden chain)—in Tel Aviv; Folk un land (People
and country) in Lemberg-Warsaw (1925) and Lodz (1928); Unzer
vort (Our word) in Paris; and Idisher
kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York; among others. He died in Tel Aviv.[1]
With Moshe Dayan
Sources:
D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the
pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 1 (Tel Aviv, 1947), in the biography
of his brother Tsvi), p. 502, vol. 2 (1947), in the biography of his brother
Zelig, p. 590, and vol. 4 (1950), pp. 1806-7; Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from
YIVO), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1928); N. Meltsar, “Perakim letoldot tenuat haavoda
begalitsiya hamizraḥit”
(Chapters in the history of the labor movement in eastern Galicia), in Pirke galitsiya (Chapters
from Galicia) (Tel Aviv, 1957), pp. 109-239; Eliyahu Ḥasin and Dan Horovits, Haparasha (The affair) (Tel Aviv:
Am-Hasefer, 1961), 240 pp.; Who’s Who in
Israel (1952), p. 419, (1958), p. 184; Time
(New York) (March 10, 1961), pp. 32-34.
Zaynvl Diamant
[1] Translator’s note.
Not mentioned was the famous Lavon Affair in which he resigned from the
cabinet in 1955 for an accusation of a false flag operation, which had serious
repercussions. (JAF)
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