Hazan, Ya'acov

(1899-1992 )

   Left-wing Zionist activist. He was born in Brest Litovsk, Russia, and educated in Warsaw at the Technological Institute. He immigrated (see ALIYA) to Palestine in 1923 as a member of Hashomer Hatzair and participated in construction work in the Jezreel Valley. Beginning in 1925, he coordinated the Hashomer Hatzair leadership and traveled abroad on its behalf. In 1927, he participated in the founding of the movement's second kibbutz, Mishmar Haemek, and of the Kibbutz Artzi Movement. He was second to Meir Ya'ari in the Kibbutz Artzi leadership and subsequently in the political parties to which the movement belonged. With the formation of Mapam in 1948, he became one of the leaders of the left-wing Zionist Party and initially called for close relations between Israel and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In subsequent years, however, he became disillusioned with Moscow and was involved in expelling more hard-line pro-Soviet elements from Hashomer Hatzair. He was very active in the 1954 split of Mapam, which marked the beginning of the Hashomer Hatzair leadership's disenchantment with the dream of a left-wing labor movement as an alternative to Mapai. After the Mapam split, and even more so in the 1960s, he strove to facilitate improved cooperation between the labor movement and the Alignment. For his contribution to the state, Hazan was awarded the Israel Prize in 1989.