The funeral of Dr. Giora Josephtal, the Israeli Minister of Development and Housing, will take place in Jerusalem tomorrow, it was announced today. After the funeral rites, interment will take place in the Galed settlement in the Jezreel Valley to which the late Mapai leader had belonged.
Dr. Josephtal’s death was described by Dr. Nahum Goldmann in a statement as a loss to the Jewish people, Israel and the Zionist movement of “one of their outstanding leaders.” Dr. Goldmann said the Israeli Minister was a person “gifted with great intellectual talents, with tremendous ability to work and loyal to the Zionist ideal as very few are, a human being of perfect integrity and warmth of heart, an organizer and administrator of the first rank.”
The president of the World Zionist Organization added that Dr. Josephtal “saw the problems of Israel and Jewish life as a real statesman. In all his positions, both in Germany and in Israel, as director of the Absorption Department of the Jewish Agency, as Treasurer, as Minister of Labor and Minister of Development and Housing, he made tremendous contributions to the solution of the tremendous problems Israel had to cope with.”
“A Western educated man, he was from early youth the personification of the best halutzic type which enabled Zionism to win its victories,” Dr. Goldmann stated. “In the history of our generation, we will remain one of the most admirable and beloved figures, remembered for his devotion, his character and his achievements.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
