![Eliezer Kaplan](https://israeled.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Eliezer_Kaplan.jpg)
Kaplan was born in Minsk (present day Belarus), where he became an active member of the Socialist Zionist party. He immigrated to Palestine in 1919, where he was elected to the Zionist Executive Committee. In 1948, Kaplan became one of the original signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, before being elected as Minister of Finance in David Ben-Gurion’s first government.