For more than a generation (thirty-six years to be exact), Pinhas Eylon was associated with the city of Holon. Eylon was born in 1909 to a Hassidic family in Poland. As a young boy, he was brought up in a household open to modern ideas and educated in the spirit of haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment Movement. The young Pinhas Zuker (Eylon) was one of the leaders of the Hehalutz Zionist movement in his home town and in the large provincial capital Lodz. In 1930, he immigrated to Eretz Israel with his wife Mania. They settled in Herzliya where Pinhas was employed as an agricultural laborer and on the editorial board of the agricultural magazine, Hasadeh. On October 15, 1937, Pinhas and Mania became new residents of Kiryat Avodah. His tremendous energy and vitality led Pinhas to become active in public service, and with the passing of Dr. Haim Kugel, he was offered to replace him. With typical modesty, Eylon wrote about that time in his life: “I stand in wonderment: Am I really worthy of this post? Moreover, am I worthy of filling the shoes of the renowned first mayor and creator of Holon?”
Pinhas Eylon believed in his mission and, with great vigor, immediately began to develop the city. During his time in office, Holon became a large city with over 100,000 inhabitants and the second largest industrial area in the country. Eylon took upon himself and through him upon the city’s residents the immense and important undertaking of immigrant absorption. Eylon – always notable for his seemingly endless energy, his loyalty to the city and its inhabitants, his public integrity, and his capability to act – was chosen by the heads of the Local Authorities of Israel to head their organization, an office he filled for eighteen years. Pinhas Eylon passed away on the Sabbath of October 31, 1987, and was laid to rest in the Darom Cemetery, adjacent to Holon. During the past decade, Kiryat Pinhas Eylon has been in the process of development in the center of Holon. His name appears on the northern approach to the new district and on the new high school established there.
