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Nathan Kaplan of Chicago Named Mayor of Tel Aviv

October 30, 1936
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Nathan D. Kaplan, former Chicago attorney, has been designated by the Government to succeed the late Meier Dizengoff in the contested mayor’s office of the all-Jewish city of Tel Aviv, it was learned today.

Publication of the Government’s selection in the official gazette was postponed at the last moment. Israel Rokach and Dov Hos have been re-appointed as vice mayors of Tel Aviv, it was learned.

Mr. Kaplan, the first American Jew to attain high office in Palestine, was appointed when Mr. Rokach contested the legality of the Municipal Council’s election of Moshe Chelouche, a councillor, resulting-in a deadlock.

Although Mr. Chelouche was elected by an 8-7 vote of the all-Jewish city’s council, Mr. Rokach, who was presiding, heeded the request of Rightist and Centre groups to close the meeting before the official letter notifying the Government of the election had been drawn up.

Mr. Kaplan, president of the Palestine Trust Co., was elected a member of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council recently to replace Mr. Dizengoff. He came to Palestine in 1927 and became active in the civic life of the Jewish city.

In Chicago, he was a founder of what later became the Middle Western Zionist Federation and active in directing the activities of the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

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