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Harel Ben-Zion (1892-1972)

Personal data
SurnameHarel
NameBen-Zion
Birth year1892
Birth placeKuldīga
Death year1972
Death placeIsrael
SexM

Harel (née Hirshovich) Ben-Zion (1892, Kuldīga, Courland Province – 1972, Israel), political figure and physician. Doctor of Medicine.

Ben-Zion Harel received a traditional Jewish religious education. He studied at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Zurich and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern. He was an activist in the Zionist movement in Switzerland.

From 1921, he lived in Eretz Israel. Between 1923 and 1934, he served as a physician at the kibbutz Ein Harod. He was the founder and director of a hospital in Emek Jezreel and chief physician of Kupat Holim in northern Eretz Israel. From 1935, he served as chairman of the physicians’ trade union. In 1936, he founded the Assuta Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

In 1948–49, Harel was Director General of the Ministry of Health of the Israel. In 1949, he founded and headed the Elisha Hospital. He was a member of the Knesset during its second and third convocations (1951–59), representing the General Zionists party.