Baruch Osnia

Israeli politician (1905–1994)

1951–1965Mapai1965–1968Alignment1968–1969Labor Party1969Alignment Personal detailsBorn19 September 1905
Pinsk, Russian EmpireDied6 July 1994(1994-07-06) (aged 88)

Baruch Osnia (Hebrew: בָּרוּךְ אָזְנִיָּה, 19 September 1905 – 6 July 1994) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1951 and 1969.

Biography

Osnia was born Baruch Eisenstadt in Pinsk in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) to Samuel Eisenstadt and Zipora Finfelstein. He was educated at a heder and a high school in Danzig (now Gdańsk), before studying at the University of Königsberg. He returned to Danzig to work as a lawyer and was a member of Habonim. In 1929, he became secretary of the central committee of the German branch of Poale Zion.

In 1933, Osnia made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine and was a high school teacher in kibbutz Givat Haim. He was on the Mapai list for the 1949 elections, but did not win a seat. However, he entered the Knesset on 12 February 1951 as a replacement for Abba Hushi,^[1] who had resigned. He retained his seat in the July 1951 elections, and was re-elected in 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1965, by which time Mapai had formed the Alignment alliance. He lost his seat in the 1969 elections.

He died in 1994.