Late Bulletin Haim Moshe Shapiro, Head of National Religious Party, Dead at 68

Haim Moshe Shapiro, Minister of Interior since 1959 and chairman of the National Religious Party, died this evening at Tel Hashomer Hospital from heart illness at the age of 68. The government planned to convene tonight to arrange funeral services. Mr. Shapiro was born in Grodno, Russia, and was educated at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. He subsequently was a co-founder of Young Mizrachi of Lithuania, and emigrated to Palestine in 1925. He became a member of the Zionist Executive of the Jewish Agency in 1935, and headed the agency’s immigration division during 1938-48. Mr. Shapiro was Minister of Immigration and Health during 1948-49; of Interior, Immigration and Health, 1949-51; of Interior and Religious Affairs, 1951-52, and of Social Welfare and Religious Affairs, 1952-59. He had been a member of the Knesset since 1949.