Lotan, Giora (née Lubinski, Georg)

Hebrew-Name
גיורא לוטן (גאורג לובינסקי)
Biography

Giora Lotan (Georg Lubinsky) was born on 22.3.1902 in Berlin, Germany, and died on 1.1.1974 in Jerusalem, Israel. He was the son of Eliezer and Ulrike, and the brother of Hans Lubinski (1900-1965, on this database). Other siblings were Alfred Lubinski (1904-1978), who had a travel agency and emigrated to Brazil, and Gerda Lubinski (born 1916). He married Hilda Cohn (1902-1983, also on the database), a social worker. The couple had two sons: Michael and Yehoyakim (Yuki).

He studied law at the University of Berlin and the University of Frankfurt, and in 1927 he received his doctorate in law. He worked as a judge in a labor court, as a youth judge and as a youth counselor in Berlin. He also had a role as a public activist in the Zionist movement. For a while he served as secretary of the HaChaluts movement in Germany.

During the "Great Depression" in Germany, there were distinguished individuals who tried to save what could have been saved. Dr. Lubinsky was a member of the ZWST, and he worked to establish social institutions for those who became destitute, and as a trustee for the Labor Zionist movement he worked hard to prepare places for agricultural training - Hachshara - for candidates for immigration to Palestine.

In 1938 he immigrated to Palestine with his wife and children. In the years 1939-1948 he headed the social department of the Vaad Leumi founded by Henrietta Szold. When the Second World War broke out, and then the 1948 war in Palestine, he ran the division of the family of the soldier, who filled the duties imposed in a sovereign state, on the Rehabilitation Branch of the Ministry of Defense. Later he was director of the Department of Public Insurance in the Ministry of Labor. He ran the comparison fund for reservists.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, he served as the director of the Department of Old Age Insurance at the Ministry of Labor, and as such he served on the inter-ministerial committee for planning social insurance and was sent as an Israeli representative to the UN Social Committee. He served as general director of the National Insurance Institute of Israel from 1954-1969. During these years, he also served for short periods as the general director of the Ministry of Welfare and Labor.

For many years, a fund for the employment of pensioners operated in his name.

Mother
Ulrike Lubinski
Father
Eliezer Lubinski
Siblings
Hans Lubinski (1900 - 1965), Alfred Lubinski (1904 - 1978) who had a travel agency and emigrated to Brazil. Gerda Lubinski (1916 - ?)
Marriage/Children
Married to Hilda Cohn (1902 - 1983), a social worker. They had two sons: Michael und Yehoyakim (Yuki).
Age at Migration
36
Year of Migration
1938
Archival Materials
CZA; NLI; the National Insurance Institute of Israel archive