Zalman Aran

 ( 1899 Births ) 

In 1926, he aliyah to Mandatory Palestine, where he joined the Ahdut HaAvoda Party. He worked in building and road construction.

In 1949 he was elected to the Knesset, and was re-elected in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1965. He chaired of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and was also a member of the House Committee. In 1953 he was appointed Minister without Portfolio and, in 1954, Minister of Transportation. From 1955 to 1960 and again from 1963 to 1969, he was Minister of Education and Culture.

As Israel's Minister of Education, he introduced "Jewish Identity" and Jewish tradition into the curriculum and promoted the expansion of technical education. In 1955, the Knesset accepted his reform program for the Israeli education system and his demands for a secondary education diploma, as well as extension of Israel's compulsory Education Law to the ages of 14 to 16. He also promoted the integration of children from different backgrounds into the same schools to accelerate Israel's melting-pot ideal and cut down socio-economic gaps in the Israeli society, including recreational activities for development town residents.

As a government minister in 1967, he initially supported the majority position which sought a diplomatic solution to Egypt's closure of the Straits of Tiran, rather than a pre-emptive strike, which he also felt posed a great risk to the home front and the Israeli Air Force. He also opposed the occupation of East Jerusalem.

• Trials of Education and implementation (1971)
• Autobiography (1971)
• Front and the appearance (1972)