Victor Shem-Tov (Bulgarian: Виктор Шемтов; Hebrew: ויקטור שם-טוב; 1 February 1915 – 8 March 2014) was an Israeli politician who held several ministerial portfolios in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Biography
Born in Bulgaria to a family of Samokov goldsmiths, Shem-Tov mostly lived in the capital Sofia and was a member of the Maccabi youth movement. He migrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1939, the same year in which he joined Hashomer Hatzair. He became a member of the Jerusalem Workers' Council in 1946, and was chairman of the Bulgarian Immigrants Association between 1949 and 1950.
In 1961 he served on the Histadrut's actions committee. In the same year he was elected to the Knesset on Mapam's list. He retained his seat in the 1965 elections, and was also voted onto Jerusalem's City Council. During the Knesset term Mapam joined the Alignment alliance.
After Likud won the 1977 elections, Shem-Tov lost his place in the cabinet, and also failed to win a Knesset seat. However, he did win a seat in the 1981 elections, voted back into the Knesset on the Alignment's list. After he was re-elected in 1984, Mapam broke away from the Alignment to sit as an independent party. Shem-Tov resigned from the Knesset on 15 March 1988, and was replaced by Gadi Yatziv.
