Berl Locker, one of the most prominent Zionist Labor Movement leaders, died here yesterday after a long illness. He would have been 85 on April 27. Funeral services will be held tomorrow. Mr. Locker, who was born in Galicia, was a close side to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first President, and after the establishment of the State became chairman of the Zionist Executive Committee.
At the age of 18, Mr. Locker was an organizer of the illegal student-Zionist group. Sereth, in Bucovina. The next year he participated in the provincial convention of Poale Zion; during 1920-28 he was secretary of the Poale Zion: World Union, and during 1928-31 secretary of Poale Zion in the United States. Subsequently he became a member of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (1931-35), a political advisor to the Executive (1938-45), a member of the London Executive (1945-48), and chairman of the Jerusalem Executive (1948-56). He was also a member of the Executive of Ihud Olami Poale Zion-Hatachduth during 1931-56.
Mr. Locker served as a Mapai member of the Knesset from 1955 to 1959. His books include “The Jewish Labor Movement” (1920), “Palestine and the Jewish Future” (1942) and “A Stiff-Necked People (1946). He was also a specialist in Jewish history.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
