Naftali, Peretz
NAFTALI, PERETZ
NAFTALI, PERETZ (Fritz; 1888–1961), Israeli economist and politician, member of the First to Third Knessets. Born in Berlin, he studied at a Realschule in Berlin and at the Higher School for Trade (zia). In 1909–12 he worked for an export company in Berlin and Brussels. Naftali joined the German Social Democratic Party in 1911. In 1911–12 he served in the German army and in 1917–18 fought in World War i. In 1921–26 he was the economic editor of the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and in 1926 became the director of the economic research institute of the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (German Trade Union Federation). Naftali was viewed as a pioneer in the field of "economic democracy" and published a book under that title which earned him considerable fame in the international labor movement. Naftali joined the Zionist Organization in 1925, was chairman of the League for Labor Palestine, and a member of the Zionist Executive in Germany. In 1931 he took part in the Zionist Congress. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, Naftali settled in Palestine. In 1933–36 he was a lecturer in economics at the Haifa Technion, and in 1936–37 at the Tel Aviv School of Economics and Law. In 1938–49 he served as the director general of Bank Hapoalim. He was a member of Asefat ha-Nivḥarim in 1941–48 on behalf of Mapai and a member of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council and the *Histadrut Executive. Naftali was elected to the first three Knessets on the Mapai list and served as minister without portfolio in 1951–52 and again in 1958–59, minister of agriculture in the years 1952–55, minister of commerce and industry in 1955, and minister of social welfare in 1959. In the First and Second Knessets, when he did not serve as a minister, Naftali was a member of the Knesset Finance Committee.
Among his writings are Kalkalat Yisrael: Halakhah u-Ma'aseh ("Israel's Economy: Theory and Practice," 1964); Demokratya Kalkalit: Mivḥar Ketavim ("Democratic Economics: A Selection of Writings," 1965).
bibliography:
Y. Rimmer, Pereẓ Naftali: Soẓi'al Demokrat ba-Ẓiyyonut u-be-Ereẓ Yisrael (1983).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]