Yaakov Hazan

MKs


Date of birth = 4 June 1899
Place of birth = Brest-Litovsk, Belarus
Year of Aliyah = 1923
Date of death = 22 July 1992
Place of death =
Knesset(s) = 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th
Party = Alignment
Former parties = Mapam
Gov't roles =

Yaakov Hazan ( _he. יעקב חזן, born 4 June 1899, died 22 July 1992) was an Israeli politician and social activist.

Biography

Hazan studied in a Heder and a Hebrew high school. In 1915 he was among the founders of the "Hebrew Scouts movement" in Poland (later to become Hashomer Hatzair), where he was also one of first members of HeHalutz. He studied at Warsaw Polytechnic. He immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1923, working in an orchard in Hadera and in drying swamps in the Beit She'an valley. In 1926, he Joined Kibbutz "Hashomer HaTzair B", which would later establish Mishmar HaEmek.Cite web
title = תנועת העבודה הישראלית - The Israeli Labor movement - - חזן
accessdate = 2007-12-16
url = http://tnuathaavoda.info/zope/home/100/people/1153637313/]

Hazan became a central figure in the Kibbutz Artzi movement. He actively participated in turning the movement into a kernel of a political party. He served in various positions of the Histadrut and the Zionist movement and major Yishuv institutions. Along with Meir Yaari, he led HaShomer Hatzair, Kibbutz Artzi and Mapam for decades, characterizing those movements by identification with the Soviet Union and Communism.

In 1948 he co-founded Mapam and since 1949 he was among the chief supporters of the party's pro-Soviet stand. He identified with the Soviet Union and the global communist movement in every aspect, except it’s attitude toward Zionism, which he attributed to the Communist Party’s misunderstanding. In 1952 he crowned The Soviet Union as the Jewish People's second homeland. Upon Stalin’s death, he wrote an emotional eulogy about him in Al HaMishmar. Following the Prague Trials he changed his mind and joined forces with Yaari to keep Moshe Sneh, who held on to the pro-Soviet stand, out of the party.

Hazan was a Mapam (and later Alignment) MK in the first through seventh Knessets from 1949 to 1973. In the fourth Knesset he was a member of the Knesset committee and in the fifth through seventh a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He chose not to serve in national positions that would make him have to abandon his ideological, partisan, parliamentary and educational occupations, that had influence outside of Mapam as well. He supported the collaboration with Mapai and establishing the Alignment in 1968. After the Six-Day War he played an important part in Mapam's taking of dovish positions. In 1984 he opposed Mapam's participation in the national unity government and supported the Alignment's disbandment. In the 1980s he was nominated for the Presidency, and in 1992 he was listed last in Meretz. In 1989 he won the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, for his unique contribution to the people and society in Israel.Cite web
title = מקבלי פרס ישראל מראשיתו, בשנת ה'תשי"ג - 1953
accessdate = 2007-12-16
url = http://www.education.gov.il/pras-israel/list4.htm] . The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's Center for Social Justice and Democracy is named after himCite web
title = The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute | Social Responsibility
accessdate = 2007-12-16
url = http://www.vanleer.org.il/eng/content.asp?id=289]

Selected writings

*"The Labor Movement and the War" he icon (1943)
*"The Kibbutz in the Test of Time" he icon (1958)
*"Conclusions and Future Tasks" he icon (1964)
*"At the Crossroads of Decisions" he icon (1968)
*"Confusion, Protest and Solution" he icon (1974)
*"A New Beginning" he icon (1988)
*"Childhood and Youth" he icon (1993), autobiography

References

External links