DULZIN, ARYE LEIB

DULZIN, ARYE LEIB (1913–1989), Zionist leader and Israeli politician. Born in Minsk, Belorussia, he immigrated with his parents to Mexico in 1928, where he was educated and was for many years active in commerce. From 1931 to 1937 he acted as the honorary general secretary of the Zionist Federation of Mexico and in the years 1938–42 was president of the federation. From 1944 to 1946 he was chairman of the Mexico branch of the World Jewish Congress and member of the General Zionist Council at the 23rd Zionist Congress in 1951, and at the 24th Zionist Congress in 1961 was elected to the Zionist Executive of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), as representative of the Union of the General Zionists. He thus became the first Latin-American member. In 1965 Dulzin settled in Israel, acting as head of the Economic Department of the Jewish Agency and later head of the Aliyah and Absorption Department. From 1968 to 1978 he was treasurer of the Jewish Agency and the WZO and in this capacity traveled widely throughout the Jewish world to raise funds and to bring the message of Israel to the Jewish world. In 1970–71 on behalf of the Liberal Party, he was cabinet minister without portfolio in the Israeli government but later returned to the Zionist Executive. In 1973–74 and again in 1975 he was acting chairman of the Jewish Agency and the WZO. He was the president of the World Union of the General Zionists, chairman of the Central Actions Committee of the Liberal Party, and a member of the Likud Executive. Among his many other functions he was a governor of Bank Leummi, governor of the Land Development Company (Hachsharat ha-Yishuv), member of the board of directors of Keren Hayesod, president of the Israel-America Society as well as a member of a number of cultural and arts institutions in Israel. In 1978 he was elected chairman of the Jewish Agency and the WZO. (Benjamin Jaffe)