Zerach Warhaftig
Zerach Warhaftig (, , also Zorah Wahrhaftig; 2 February 1906 - 26 September 2002) was an Israeli rabbi, lawyer, and politician. He was a signatory of Israel's Declaration of Independence. Biography. Zerach Warhaftig was born in Volkovysk, in the Russian Empire (today Vawkavysk, Belarus) in 1906. His parents were Yerucham Warhaftig and Rivka Fainstein. He studied law at the University of Warsaw, and later became a Doctor of Law from the Hebrew University. At the start of World War II, Rabbi Warhaftig was among those who convinced the Japanese Vice-Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, to issue transit visas  for the entire Mir Yeshiva. Warhaftig and most students of the Mir Yeshiva received a "Curaçao visa" from the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk, which gave them an official travel destination. This allowed Sugihara to issue Japanese transit visa. By so doing, Zwartendijk and Sugihara saved thousands of lives and families from the Nazis who had occupied first Poland and then Lithuania. In 1940 Warhaftig and his family travelled east from Lithuania to Japan. On 5 June 1941 the Warhaftigs left Yokohama on the Japanese ocean liner "Hikawa Maru" and on 17 June they landed at Vancouver, Canada. He described the  trip as "a summer vacation and with the war seeming to be so far away" although, he said "I didn't have a peaceful mind because of the strong responsibility I had to help the Jewish refugees with the troubles they faced." In 1947, Warhaftig immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. Initially he joined the Hapoel HaMizrachi party, a religious-zionist party, and in 1949 he was elected to the first Knesset as part of the United Religious Front, an alliance between Mizrachi, Hapoel HaMizrachi, Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael. In 1948-1963 he taught Jewish Law at the Hebrew University  of Jerusalem. The party contended in the 1951 elections alone. Although it won only two seats, it was included in David Ben-Gurion's coalition, and Warhaftig was appointed Deputy Minister of Religions in the fourth government. In 1956, Hapoel HaMizrachi and Mizrachi merged to form the National Religious Party. Warhaftig led the party and retained his ministerial role until the end of the third Knesset. After the 1961 elections (the fifth Knesset) he was appointed Minister of Religions, a position he held until 1974. In 1981 he retired from the Knesset. In 1970, he was elected chairman of the  curatorium of Bar-Ilan University. Awards and recognition. The Dr. Zerah Warhaftig Institute for Research on Religious Zionism at Bar Ilan University is named for him.