David Bar-Rav-Hai

David Bar-Rav-Hai (Hebrew: דָּוִד בַּר־רַב־הָאִי‎, 11 July 1894 – 15 July 1977) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai from 1949 until 1955, and again from 1956 until 1965.

David Bar-Rav-Hai
Date of birth11 July 1894
Place of birthNizhyn, Russian Empire
Year of aliyah1924
Date of death15 July 1977(1977-07-15) (aged 83)
Knessets1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Faction represented in Knesset
1949–1955Mapai
1956–1965Mapai

Biography

Born David Borovoi in Nizhyn in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Bar-Rav-Hai joined the Zionist Students Organization in Odessa. In 1911, he moved to Germany, but returned to Russia in 1918 and joined the Young Zion movement, becoming secretary of the Jewish community in Odessa, until the Soviet authorities closed it down in 1920. Afterwards he joined the Zionist underground, and was arrested in 1922. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released after 15 months and expelled from the country. In 1924, he made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine, where he joined Hapoel Hatzair. He became a member of the workers councils in Haifa and Jerusalem, and was sent to Poland and Romania as an emissary.

In 1933, he established a law office in Haifa. He was joined by his son, Meir, who studied law in the last class under the British Mandate.[1] Between 1932 and 1948, Bar-Rav-Hai was a member of the Jewish National Council, after which he was an alternate member of the Provisional State Council. As chairman of Israel's election committee in October 1948, he wrote that the need to hold elections within a short period of time made it impossible to create voting districts. Therefore, the whole country was one district for the purpose of the first elections for the Knesset, but with proportional representation.[2] He argued in favor of delaying writing a formal constitution and drafting it "step by step...chapter by chapter," with the Israeli Declaration of Independence as its cornerstone.[3]

In the elections of 1949, Bar-Rav-Hai won a seat on the Mapai list. He was re-elected in 1951, but lost his seat in the 1955 elections. However, he re-entered the Knesset on 24 October 1956 as a replacement for Senetta Yoseftal.[4] He was re-elected in 1959 and 1961, serving until 1965. He was placed 115th place on the Alignment list in the 1965 elections.[5]

References
  1. About the office Ben Ari, Fish, Saban & Co
  2. Israel is in dire need of electoral reform Kohelet Policy Forum
  3. Daniel J. Elazar (1990) Constitutionalism: The Israeli and American Experiences University Press of America, p61
  4. Knesset members in the Third Knesset Knesset website
  5. Alignment list Archived 2016-10-17 at the Wayback Machine Israel Democracy Institute
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