Orah Namir

1930 -

Israeli politician.

Born in Hadera, Israel, Orah Namir served in the Israel Defense Force as an officer during the 1948 Arab-Israel War. During the late 1950s she lived in New York, working for the Israeli delegation to the United Nations and attending Hunter College, from which she earned a B.A. in English literature and European civilization. Upon returning to Israel, she married Mordekhai Namir (1897 - 1975), a veteran Labor Party leader and a long-time mayor of Tel Aviv. After his death, she entered politics and served as secretary general of Naʿamat. Elected to the Knesset on the Labor ticket in 1973, she specialized in social affairs and chaired the Education and Culture Committee (1974 - 1977) and the Labor and Social Affairs Committee (1977 - 1992). She also chaired the Committee on the Status of Women.

In 1992 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin appointed her minister for the environment and a year later minister of labor and social affairs. She held this latter position until 1996, when Prime Minister Shimon Peres appointed her Israel's ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a position she held until 2000. Her term of office in Beijing witnessed a strengthening of Israel-China relations, which was translated into a series of agreements on cultural, scientific, and economic matters.

— MERON MEDZINI