Yitzhak Gruenbaum
| Yitzhak Gruenbaum | |
|---|---|
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| Date of birth | 24 November 1879 |
| Place of birth | Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire |
| Year of aliyah | 1933 |
| Date of death | 7 September 1970 (aged 90) |
| Place of death | Gan Shmuel, Israel |
| Ministerial roles | |
| 1948–1949 | Minister of Internal Affairs |
Yitzhak Gruenbaum (Polish: Izaak Grünbaum, Hebrew and Yiddish: יצחק גרינבוים, born 1879 died 1970) was a noted leader of the Zionist movement among Polish Jewry between the two world wars and of the Yishuv in Mandatory Palestine, and the first Interior Minister of Israel.
Gruenbaum was born in Warsaw, Poland. While a student of jurisprudence, he began activities on behalf of the Zionist movement and engaged in journalism. He served as editor of several periodicals widely circulated among Polish Jewry, including the Hebrew Ha-Zefirah and the Hebrew weekly Ha-Olam. Under his editorship, the Yiddish daily, Haynt, took on a pro-Zionist slant.
On the political scene in Poland, Gruenbaum headed the Radical Zionist faction, initially known in Poland as Al Hamishmar. In 1919 he was elected to the Sejm (Polish parliament), where, together with Apolinary Hartglas, he organized a "Jewish bloc" that united most of the Jewish parties. He was the moving force in forming a collaboration with other minority parties represented in the Sejm, including Germans, Ukrainians, and others, to form a Bloc of National Minorities alliance in 1922, that acted to represent the rights of minority populations in Poland. His efforts brought about an increase of Jewish representation in the Sejm, which was accompanied by a rise of the political Zionism. Gruenbaum was known for his courageous and militant stance against his opponents and on behalf of minorities' interests, while equally critical of the ultra-orthodox party Agudat Israel and Jewish lobbying.
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