Yehudit Simhonit (sometimes Simhoni; ; 24 January 1902 – 5 December 1991) was a Zionist activist and politician.

Biography

Simhonit was born in Nahar-Tov, an agricultural settlement in the

Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast (, ; ), also known as Khersonshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(today in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), and attended an agricultural high school. In 1917 she joined the Zionist Student Youth Federation. In 1921 she and her husband Mordechai Simhoni

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, and settled in

Nahalal Nahalal () is a moshav in Northern District (Israel), northern Israel. Covering , it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a population of . Nahalal is best known for its general layout, as designed by ...

, the newly established first

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

. In 1927 she became a member of the Union of Women Workers. She moved to kibbutz

Tel Yosef Tel Yosef () is a kibbutz in north-eastern Israel. Located in the Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. In it had a population of . History In 1921, members of the Gdud HaAvoda "Work Battalion", at a time whe ...

in 1931, and moved again to

Geva Geva (, ''lit.'' Hill) is a kibbutz in the Jezreel Valley in Israel. Located near the city of Afula, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gilboa Regional Council. In it had a population of . History Geva was founded in 1921 by Jewish immigrants f ...

in 1943. A member of

Mapai Mapai (, an abbreviation for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', ) was a Labor Zionist and democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in January ...

, she represented the party in the fourth Assembly of Representatives. In 1949 she was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population ch ...

to the first Knesset on the Mapai list. However, she resigned from the Knesset on 5 February 1951 and was replaced by

Herzl Berger Herzl Berger (; ‎; 31 July 1904 – 28 August 1962) was a Minsk-born Israeli activist and politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai between 1951 and 1962. Biography Born in Minsk in the Russian Empire (today in Belarus), ...

. She later worked as a member of the

Histadrut Histadrut, fully the New General Workers' Federation () and until 1994 the General Federation of Labour in the Land of Israel (, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center and represents the m ...

's co-ordinating committee and chief cultural and welfare officer of the IDF's Women's Corps. Between 1960 and 1965 she served as head of the Histadrut's International Relations Department. In 1965 she left Mapai and was a founding member of

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

's new Rafi party, and was amongst its leadership until the party was dissolved in 1968. She died in 1991. Her son Major General

Asaf Simhoni Asaf Simhoni (Also spelled Asaf Simchoni; ; October 9, 1922 - November 6, 1956) was a major general in the IDF, served as head of Northern Command, Assistant Head of Operations Directorate, and later as the Head of Southern Command. Simhoni h ...

was killed in a plane crash at the end of the

Sinai War The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

. Her grandson, Avner Simhoni, was killed in 1968 when a mine exploded in the

Gulf of Suez The Gulf of Suez (; formerly , ', "Sea of Calm") is a gulf at the northern end of the Red Sea, to the west of the Sinai Peninsula. Situated to the east of the Sinai Peninsula is the smaller Gulf of Aqaba. The gulf was formed within a relative ...

during the military operations in the

War of Attrition The War of Attrition (; ) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from 1967 to 1970. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, no serious diplomatic efforts were made to resolve t ...

Note

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simhonit, Yehudit 1902 births 1991 deaths People from Kherson Governorate Zionist activists Soviet emigrants to Israel Jews from Mandatory Palestine Israeli trade unionists Women members of the Knesset Members of the Assembly of Representatives (Mandatory Palestine) Members of the 1st Knesset (1949–1951) 20th-century Israeli Jews Mapai politicians Rafi (political party) politicians 20th-century Israeli women politicians Jewish women politicians Ukrainian Zionists People from Nahalal Kibbutzniks Immigrants of the Third Aliyah First women legislators