Haim Menachem Bassok — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Rabbi Haim Bassok z"l (1923-2006) learned at a Torah academy and high school in Vilna and was a member of the religious youth organization Hashomer Hadati.

During World War Two he was a member of the Zionist underground in the Vilna Ghetto, was a prisoner in the Nazi prison and even participated in the revolt. After the revolt he escaped from the ghetto and joined the partisans. Bassok was a fighter and sapper in the Vilgius unit.

After the war he returned to Poland as an emissary of Torah Va'avoda and the Mizrahi movement. He was active in the illegal immigration to Israel and initiated 18 training farms in Western Europe. He was one of the leaders of Torah Va'avoda and the Mizrahi movement in Eastern Europe and one of the founders of the movement in the displaced persons' camp. During the Nuremberg trials he was the eyes and ears of hundreds of thousands of survivors as he reported the trial in a Yiddish newspaper.

Bassok made aliyah to Israel in 1947 and joined Kvutzat Yavneh, where, in addition to studying law at Tel Aviv University, he worked as a wagon driver, a fact of which he was very proud. He worked in the Hagana as a sapper in the south and during the War of Independence he was a sapper and an infantry officer. He was also one of the founders of the Nahal. After he completed his studies he was admitted to the Bar Association and joined the Military Attorney's Office where he was an advisory officer on legislation, a legal training officer, president of the first military court in the Old City in 1967 and president of the military court on the West Bank. When he retired from the army, he had reached the rank  of lieutenant colonel.

He was married to Nechama Ben Dov, a student of Nehama Leibowitz, who was a teacher at Kvutzat Yavneh.

In addition to his law studies, he studied sociology and public administration at the Hebrew University and was the legal advisor of the Chief Rabbinate and the Ministry of Religious Affairs; he was a member of the board of the NRP and, in 1969, he was elected to the Municipality of Tel Aviv and became deputy mayor.

From 1973-1989, he was head of the Education Department of the municipality and took an active part in public affairs. He was one of the founders of Bet Hatfutsot and a member of the museum board; he was also a member of the board of Yad Vashem, on the board of the Tel Aviv Foundation for literature and the arts, a member of the board of Bar Ilan University and on the advisory committee of the Bank of Israel.

In 1982 Haim Bassok was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Adelphi University in the U.S.A.  He published many articles on a variety of topics. He died at the age of 83 at his home, leaving his wife, 5 children, 17 grandchildren and 20 great-children.

Translated from: Wikipedia.