Haim Kugel was born in Russian Minsk in 1897, the year that the First Zionist Congress convened in Basel. His parents, “Hovevei Zion” (Lovers of Zion), sent their fifteen-year-old son to the Gymnasia Herzliya High School in little Tel Aviv. With the outbreak of World War I, the young boy was forced to leave Eretz Israel and continue his studies in Moscow and Prague where he eventually received a doctorate in economics. At the age of 27, he was already a prominent Zionist activist and the principal of the Hebrew school in the Czechoslovakian city of Munkacs and was later elected to the Czech parliament in Prague. In 1939, he immigrated to Eretz Israel with his wife Sarah. Yosef Sprinzak, a leader in the labor movement who served as the secretary of the Histadrut (Labor Federation) and later as the first Speaker of the Knesset, suggested that Dr. Kugel become head of the new local council of Holon that had just been established. Dr. Kugel accepted the offer and immediately assumed the demanding office. He carried a heavy burden throughout difficult times – during World War II and the War of Independence. Due to his education as an economist, he established good connections with the industrialist Arieh Shenkar, with the head of the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund), and with the construction companies Shikun Ovdim and Rassco, thus contributing in good measure to laying a firm foundation for the young local council.
In 1950, Holon was declared a city, and Dr. Haim Kugel became its first mayor. He passed away on February 4, 1953 at the early age of 56. He was laid to rest in the Nahlat Yitzhak Cemetery in Tel Aviv. The main boulevard at the northern entrance to Holon and the first high school established in the city bear his name.
