Shlomo Zalman Shragai (Hebrew: זלמן שרגאי, 1899–1995) was an Israeli politician and West Jerusalem's first elected mayor after it came under Israeli control following the 1948 Palestine War.
Biography
Shlomo Zalman Shragai was born into a Polish Orthodox Jewish family in Gorzkowice in 1899. He then became active in the religious Zionist movement and settled in Palestine in 1924,[1] already playing an important political role before Israel's founding in 1948.
Political career
In 1950, Shragai was elected mayor of West Jerusalem, a position he held for two years.[2] He then became the head of immigration of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. This was a time of extensive immigration to Israel from Muslim countries, so he often went on clandestine trips to these countries to obtain the release of the Jews living there. He served as honorary world president of Hapoel HaMizrachi movement.[1] Shragai was particularly active in encouraging religious Jews to move to Israel and was among the prime movers behind the establishment of Kiryat Sanz in Netanya, Kiryat Mattersdorf and Kiryat Itri in Jerusalem, and Kiryat Sassov near Ramat Gan.[3]
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