At the age of 98, Israel Prize winner and former Minister Mordechai Ben Porat passed away.
“He was a great personality. A charismatic man with such a glorious past that there was always something to talk about. He was clear until the moment he died.”
By Yael Hochhauser
Former MK Mordechai Ben Porat has died at the age of 98.
Ben Porat was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and in 1945, when he was only 22, immigrated to Israel on foot and by hitchhiking.
He was willing to do anything for the Land of Israel.
While still in Iraq, he was a member of the Haganah organization and after arriving in Israel he continued to work in the organization, in 1948 he completed the first IDF officers’ course and participated in the War of Independence as a company commander.
And between 1949 and 1951 he was one of the organizers of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, in which Iraqi Jews were brought to Israel.
Following the operation, he wrote a book called “Baghdad and Back”, in which he said, among other things: “On the evening of March 3, 1950, I hurried to our wireless station. I took out a paper and by the lamp I read the following telegram: “This is what preceded us. Here came the unfortunate redemption of Judaism. The Iraqi government decided by a majority vote to approve the exodus of the Jews.” The operation resulted in the immigration of 120,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel.
For 14 years, Ben Porat served as the first head of the Or Yehuda council.
In 1965, he joined the Rafi movement, led by David Ben-Gurion, and elected to the Knesset.
In 1981, he was elected to the Tenth Knesset as the second on Moshe Dayan’s list, “Telam”, and a year later he was elected minister without portfolio. In 1984 he resigned from the government due to economic deterioration and the need to withdraw from Lebanon. , Who wanted it established.
Ben Porat initiated and founded the “Babylonian Jewish Heritage Center” in Or Yehuda, and headed it voluntarily.
In 2001, he received the Israel Prize for his work.
“Last night he passed away in a kiss bed. He was a great personality. A charismatic man with such a glorious past that there was always something to talk about. He was clear until the moment he died. Besides his public personality, he was an exemplary family man, an amazing grandfather to grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You can not fall in love with him. ” This is what Yitzhak Haik, Ben Porat’s son-in-law, said.
Ben Porat’s funeral will take place tomorrow at 2:00 PM in the Holon Cemetery in the Defense Fighters’ plot.