Dr. Michael Jacob Hazani Selected by Nrp to Fill Seat of Haim Moshe Shapiro

Dr. Michael Jacob Hazani, Deputy Minister of Education and Member of Knesset, was selected by the National Religious Party today to fill the cabinet post of Minister of Interior left vacant by the death of Haim Moshe Shapiro. Premier Golda Meir is expected to announce his appointment shortly. Dr. Hazani was selected over Knesset Member Dr. Itzhak Raphael, by a 23-22 vote of the party’s Executive. Dr. Hazani, 57, was supported by the younger members of the party and by the party’s “settlement movement.” Dr. Raphael, 56, had the support of the party’s “establishment” and its rabbinical section. A pre-election agreement between the rival blocs granting the losing candidate the right to appeal if the election was decided by one vote was waived by Dr. Raphael, who said he regarded the vote as final. The NRP will now have to select a successor for Dr. Hazani as Deputy Education Minister, a post to which it is entitled under the coalition agreement. Dr. Hazani, who was born in Poland, came to Palestine in 1932 and was elected to the Knesset, where he is the NRP speaker. in 1951. He was ordained an Orthodox rabbi at Tahkemony Rabbinical Seminary in Warsaw in 1930, and studied at the Hebrew University School of Economics during 1957-58. He has been a member of the Knesset’s financial committee since 1955 and is the author of articles on settlement, economics, sociology and politics. He has been vice president of the Mizrachi Bank since 1956 and vice chairman of the Bank of Israel since 1962, and serves on the boards of several commercial and cultural institutions.