Berl Locker
{{Short description|Israeli politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|image= Berl Locker.jpg
|caption = Locker in 1948
|birth_date = 27 April 1887
|birth_place = {{ill|Kryvets, Ivano-Frankivsk|uk|Кривець (Івано-Франківський район)|lt=Kriwiec}}, Austria-Hungary
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1972|2|1|1887|4|27|df=y}}
|death_place =
|office1 = Faction represented in the Knesset
|subterm1 = 1955–1959
|suboffice1 = Mapai
}}
Berl Locker ({{langx|he|ברל לוקר}}; 27 April 1887 – 1 February 1972) was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician.
Biography
Born in {{ill|Kryvets, Ivano-Frankivsk|uk|Кривець (Івано-Франківський район)|lt=Kriwiec}} in Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine), Locker was educated at a Jewish school. In 1902 he began contributing to the Der Yidisher Arbeiter newspaper, which he later became editor of.[https://archive.today/20121218175545/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/jajz/jafi75/history/locker.html Berl Locker] Jewish Agency for Israel In 1904 he signed up to study law at Chernivtsi University, and in the same year established the Flowers of Zion student union.
The following year he joined Poale Zion, and became a member of its central committee in Austria-Hungary. In 1916 he became secretary of the movement's The Hague office, and later served the same role in Stockholm. He represented Poale Zion at conferences for socialist parties, and between 1918 and 1928 served as secretary of the Poale Zion World Union. From 1928 until 1931 he served as Poale Zion's secretary in the United States.
In 1931 he moved to London and became a member of the Jewish Agency board, on which he served until 1935. He also worked as a political advisor to the organisation. Between 1948 and 1956 he was chairman of the Agency's board of directors.
In 1955 he was elected to the Knesset on the Mapai list, but served only a single term.{{Cite web|url=https://main.knesset.gov.il/mk/Pages/MKPub.aspx?MKID=480|access-date=2020-08-06|website=Knesset|title=Berl Locker}}
Locker was married to the Yiddish poet Malka Locker.{{Cite book|last1=Landman|first1=Isaac|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9pwYAAAAIAAJ|title=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia ...: An Authoritative and Popular Presentation of Jews and Judaism Since the Earliest Times|last2=Cohen|first2=Simon|date=1942|publisher=Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Incorporated|language=en}} He died in 1972 at the age of 84.
Awards
- In 1968, Locker received the Yakir Yerushalayim (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award from the city of Jerusalem.{{Cite web |title=Recipients of Yakir Yerushalayim award (in Hebrew) |url=http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/TopSiteJeru.asp?newstr=3&src=/jer_sys/publish/HtmlFiles/1030/results_pub_id=12594.html&cont=895 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617061055/http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/TopSiteJeru.asp?newstr=3&src=%2Fjer_sys%2Fpublish%2FHtmlFiles%2F1030%2Fresults_pub_id%3D12594.html&cont=895 |archivedate=2011-06-17 }} City of Jerusalem official website
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Berl Locker}}
- {{MKlink|id=480}}
- The personal papers of Berl Locker are kept at the [http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en/Pages/Default.aspx Central Zionist Archives] in Jerusalem. The notation of the record group is A263.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Locker, Berl}}
Category:Israeli Ashkenazi Jews
Category:Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Category:Chernivtsi University alumni
Category:Poale Zion politicians
Category:Polish emigrants to Israel
Category:Jewish Agency for Israel
Category:Heads of the Jewish Agency for Israel