Yosef Sapir

Who was Yosef Sapir?

Yosef Sapir was an Israeli politician and Knesset member of the 1st to 7th Knessets. He served as head of the General Zionists and was a founding member of the Gahal party.

Sapir was born in Jaffa in 1902, during Ottoman period. Between 1940 and 1951, he served as the mayor of Petah Tikva, where a major street has been named after him. Shortly after his tenure, Sapir joined the national government at the end of 1952 as the Health Minister and went on to become the Minister of Transportation in 1953 until 1955.

In Levi Eshkol's emergency government formed on the eve of the Six-Day War, Sapir served as a Minister without Portfolio and assumed the post of Minister of Trade and Industry in Golda Meir's government, until Gahal left the coalition on 6 August 1970.

Karmei Yosef, a communal settlement founded in 1984 between Ramle and Beit Shemesh, was named in his honor.