- Yosef Sprinzak
MKs
Date of birth =8 December 1885
Year of Aliyah = 1910
Date of death =28 January 1959
Knesset(s) = 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Party =Mapai
Former parties =
Gov't roles =Yosef Sprinzak ( _he. יוסף שפרינצק, born
8 December 1885 , died28 January 1959 ) was a leading Zionist activist in the first half of the 20th century, anIsrael i politician, and the first Speaker of the Knesset, a role he held from 1949 until his death in 1959.Sprinzak was born in
Moscow ,Russia but following the expulsion of Jews in 1891 moved with his family to Kishinev where he was a founder of theTze'irei Zion (Zion Youth). He began medical school at theAmerican University in Beirut in 1908 and settled inPalestine in 1910, during theSecond Aliyah (1904-1914).Along with
Eliezer Kaplan Sprinzak headed "Hapoel Hatzair " ("The Young Worker") a Zionist socialist faction formed in 1905 and one of the organisations that consolidated to formMapai in 1930. Its members were pro-British and supportedChaim Weizmann . [Sofer, 2003, pp. xi; xii; 99.] He was a founder of theHistadrut in 1920 and acted as secretary general of the organisation from 1945 to 1949.Sprinzak was elected to the position of speaker of the provisional parliament on
15 July , 1948, [Goldberg, 2003, p. 32.] a role in which he helped lay the foundations of Israel's parliamentarism. Sofer, 1998, p. 115.] He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 as a member ofMapai , and became the Speaker of the new body. He was re-elected and remained speaker in both the second and third Knessets.As part of his role as speaker, Sprinzak became acting
President of Israel whenChaim Weizmann fell ill from 12 December 1951. After Weizmann's death on 9 November 1952 Sprinzak served as interim President until inauguration ofYitzhak Ben-Zvi on 10 December 1952.His son
Yair Sprinzak also served in the Knesset.Notes
References
* Goldberg, Giora (2003). "Ben-Gurion Against the Knesset". London:
Routledge . ISBN 0714655562
* Sofer, Sasson (1998). "Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy". Cambridge:Cambridge University Press . ISBN 0521630126External links
*MKlink|id=668
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sprinzak.html Jewish Virtual Library]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.