PINKAS, DAVID ẒVI

PINKAS, DAVID ẒVI (1895–1952), Mizrachi leader and Israel politician. Pinkas was born in Sopron, Hungary, into a religious Zionist family, which settled in Vienna when he was a child. He became active in the Mizrachi movement and represented it as a delegate at the 13th Zionist Congress. In 1925 Pinkas settled in Palestine, became the manager of the Mizrachi bank, and, in 1932, was elected to the Tel Aviv municipal council, heading its Education Department from 1935. He was also a Mizrachi representative to the Asefat ha-Nivharim and the Va'ad Le'ummi, becoming treasurer and director of its department of Religious Communities and the Rabbinate. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he was elected to the First Knesset on behalf of the United Religious Front, and after the elections to the Second Knesset, in October 1951, he was appointed minister of transportation. In this capacity he regulated the austerity measures for fuel consumption and stipulated that all vehicles should not be driven two days a week, and that one of these days should be Saturday (the Sabbath). This regulation aroused sharp protest from extreme circles opposing "religious coercion." -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Tidhar, 2 (1947), 855–6.