Yehuda Leib Maimon ^People

Maimon studied in a number of yeshivot and received rabbinic ordination from Rabi Yechiel Michel Epstein, the author of the Aruch HaShulchan. He was one of eht founders of the Mizrachi movement in 1902. By this time Maimon had moved to hte Russian Empire, where he was arrested several times for Zionist activity. He was delegate to the ninth Zionist Congress in 1909, and attended every one until Israeli independence in 1948. In 1913, Maimon immigrated to Palestine (then part of theOtoman Empire), but was expelled during World War .I He moved to the United States, where he organised the Mizrachi movement.He was elected to the board of the Jewish Agency in 1935. In 1937, he founded Mosad Harav Kook, a religious research foundation and notable publishing housenamed in honor of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.Maimon helped draft Israel's declaration of independence, and was one of thepeople to sign it. He was appointed Minister of Religions, and also as Minister of War Vcmits in the provisional government set up immediately after independence. He w a s elected to the first Knesset in 1949 as a member of the United Religious Front (analiance of Agudat Yisrael, Poalei Agudat Yisrael, Mizrachi and Hapoel HaMizrachi) anredtained his ministerial role in the first and second governments. In 1958, he wasawarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to Rabbinical literature.