KRINITZI, AVRAHAM

KRINITZI, AVRAHAM (1886–1969), Israeli public figure. Born in Grodno, Krinitzi began working as a carpenter from his youth. Krinitzi went to Ereẓ Israel in 1905, but returned to Russia to serve in the army. In 1908 he settled in Ereẓ Israel, establishing a furniture factory in Jaffa which was the first in the country to use modern machinery. Active in yishuv defense, he was arrested several times. He was one of the founders   of the Naḥalat Binyamin quarter of Tel Aviv and headed a Tel Aviv watchmen's committee. During World War I, the Turkish authorities placed him in charge of fuel supplies for the railways in Palestine and Syria, and he later ran a factory for repairing cannons in Damascus. In 1947 Krinitzi was arrested by the Mandatory authorities together with other public figures, and imprisoned in Latrun. From 1926 he headed Ramat Gan's local government, first as chairman of its local council and from 1950 as its mayor. In his term of office, Ramat Gan was transformed from its small beginnings, with 750 inhabitants, to a town of over 100,000 citizens. From the 1920s he was a leading member of the General Zionist (later the liberal ) Party. His autobiography is entitled Be-Kho'aḥ ha-Ma'aseh (19614; Going My Own Way, 1963, tr. I.M. Lask). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Remba, Deyokano shel Ish Rav-Pe'alim (1968). (Abraham Aharoni)