Born
Elijhu Wierzbolowski on 20 July 1914 in
Saint Petersburg in the
Russian Empire (now in Russia), Meridor was educated at a
Tarbut school in
Grajewo in
Poland, before studying law at the
University of Warsaw. He also became a member of the local branch of
Betar. In 1936 he
emigrated to
Mandatory Palestine, where he worked as a lawyer. He joined the
Irgun, and was a commander in Jerusalem, as well as being a member of the organisation's command. He was arrested by the British authorities and exiled to Africa. In 1948 he was amongst the founders of the Herut movement, and chaired its Jerusalem branch. In
1959 he was elected to the Knesset on the party's list. He was re-elected in
1961 and
1965, but died in 1966 at the age of 52. His seat was taken by
Shlomo Cohen-Tzidon. Meridor had four children;
Dan, also a politician, Haggit (Hurvitz), Head of Pediatrics at the
Bikur Holim Hospital, Avital (Darmon), Director of the Applied Research Initiative in Education, and
Sallai, former chairman of the Jewish Agency and Israeli ambassador to the
United States between 2006 and 2009. His grandchildren included
Eli Hurvitz, executive director of the Trump Foundation, and Shaul Meridor, deputy director of Allocation at the Ministry of Finance. A street in
Pisgat Ze'ev (East) is named after him. ==References==