HECHT, REUBEN

HECHT, REUBEN (1909–1993). Israeli industrialist and Zionist activist. Hecht, the son of Jacob *Hecht, was born in Antwerp but grew up in Basle, and studied at the University of Heidelberg, receiving his doctorate in political science in 1933. Hecht was engaged in transport and shipping before emigrating to Ereẓ Israel in 1936. An active Revisionist from his student days, Hecht cooperated with Ze'ev Jabotinsky during his stay in Paris in 1933–34, joined the Irgun Ẓeva'i Le'ummi, and was sent by David Raziel to Europe in 1939 to organize "illegal" immigration. In 1941 he escaped with his wife from German-occupied Yugoslavia to Switzerland, where he intensively continued his political and rescue work as representative of the Irgun and the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation. After World War ii he joined the family shipping combine, Neptun-Rhenania, of which he was president from 1963 to 1970. In Israel he obtained the first concession granted in the state for the erection of port grain silos and in 1951 established the Dagon Silo Company in Haifa. Among his other activities are the foundation of the Shikmona publishing company and the unique Dagon Archaeological Museum, devoted to the means of cultivation and storage of grain since the most ancient times.

Hecht served on numerous governmental, civic, cultural, and educational bodies, including membership in the Archaeological Council attached to the Ministry of Education and Culture, the International Council of Museums, Paris, the Bezalel Academy, the Israel Museum and the Israel Board of the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, of whose subcommittee for art, archaeology, and museums he was chairman until 1976. He was among the founders of Haifa University and a member in its board from 1971 until the day he died. In 1981 he established the Hecht Museum, located inside the university, and donated his private collections. In 1984 he was the first to receive an honorary doctorate from Haifa University.

He was awarded the Kaplan Prize for efficiency in 1960, in 1970 he was made an honorary citizen of Haifa, and in 1977 he was appointed personal advisor to the prime minister. In 1986 he was awarded a special humanitarian prize from the international *B'nai B'rith organization. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1988 for exemplary lifelong service to society and the state.