Nachman Rachmilewitz
Nachman Rachmilewitz was born on May 25th, 1876 in Volkowisk in the county of Grodna. His parents were Eliyahu, a wood trader, scribe and businessman and Nechama. He studied in a heder, going on to a state high school and, in 1901 he graduated from Heidelberg University with a doctorate of philosophy. In 1904 he married Hannah, the daughter of Samuel Lindensche and moved to Vilna where he engaged in wood trading. He became active in public affairs and served in most of the institutions in the city.
In 1905, during the elections to the state Duma in Russia, after the October Constitution was passed, he was elected arbitrator for the Duma on behalf of the Jewish community. He was also elected to the Jewish Council in Vilna.
At the outbreak of World War, he was appointed an honorary member of the Victims' Aid Committee and headed the free Soup Kitchen for Jewish refugees who were deported from their towns in the Kovno and Kurland regions, by the Czarist authorities; from 1915 he was also a member of the municipal board of Vilna.
From 1917 until the end of the war he was a prisoner of war of the Germans.
When the state of Lithuania was founded in early 1919, he was elected to the "Tariba" (the Lithuanian House of Representatives) together with Dr. Jacob Vygodsky and Dr. Samson Rosenbaum as the Jews' representatives. Nachman was appointed deputy Minister of Finance, Trade and Industry and transferred with the government to Kovno. He assisted in writing the state constitution, was a member of the Supreme Committee of Defense and was advisor to the President on ministerial appointments.
From 1935-40 he was the Lithuanian consul in Palestine.
Translated from: Encyclopedia for the pioneers of the settlement and its builders
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