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Naftali Heinz Vidra (October 24, 1909-1987) was an Israeli maritime expert and one of the founders of the shipping industry in Israel. Wydra served as CEO of the national shipping company Zim, chairman of the board of the Israel Ports Authority, and founder of the "Vidra Institute for Shipping and Aviation Research" at the University of Haifa.
Biography
Naftali Heinz Vidra was born in Leipzig, Germany. In his youth he was active in the Zionist sports club "Bar Kochba" in Leipzig. After completing degrees in economics and law at the University of Heidelberg, the University of Leipzig and the University of Berlin and receiving a doctorate in law, he immigrated to Israel in 1933.
In 1936 he joined the naval department of the Jewish Agency, and served as the director of its Haifa branch. In this capacity, he developed the early infrastructure for the fishing industry in Israel, and was involved in the establishment of settlements based on fishing, including Sdot Yam, Neve-Yam, Ein Hayam, the Rowers and the Sea Guard. He was also involved in the training of Jewish sailors and was one of the founders of the Maritime School in Haifa and a member of its board of trustees.
In 1947 he was one of the founders of the "Kedem" company, the first partnership of the Zim company, which operated the company's first ship, "Kedma". He was a co-director of Zim and in 1963 was appointed CEO, a position he served in until 1966. In 1949 he was the director and founder of the company "Shehem Shrouth Hayam", a wholly owned subsidiary of Zim.
Between the years 1969-1981 he was the chairman of the board of directors of the Shipping and Ports Authority.
In 1969 he founded the Israel Institute for Shipping Research. In 1987, the institute was named after him - Vidra Institute for Shipping and Aviation Research.
Naval Department, Jewish Agency
In 1936, Bar Kochva Meirowitz was appointed to manage the Jewish Agency's naval department. The department is designed to handle all maritime industries, including shipping and fishing. Widra joined the department in 1937, a period in which the Jewish Agency began working to establish fishing settlements along Israel's coasts, partly for political reasons - the establishment of bases to assist illegal immigration to Mandatory Palestine.
During the British Mandate, sporadic attempts were made to establish the Jewish fishing industry in Mandatory Palestine, which was seen as having important economic potential; however such efforts were without success. Widra invited Captain Gustav Fitch, an expert in the field of fishing, to Israel because of his experience with the subject in foreign countries. He laid the foundations for scientific research on fishing, which he saw as a necessary infrastructure for the advancement of the industry. In the name of "Experience" which was built in Sdot-Yam, he worked to obtain financial support and credit for the fishing settlements that were suffering from financial distress during the British Mandate.
Among other duties, Wydra was responsible for the personal needs of sailors from the Jewish community, the training of sailors and port workers, mastering the Hebrew language in the customs declarations of the British Mandate, and establishing facilities for repairing vessels in the Port of Haifa. In preparation for the establishment of the State of Israel, he also helped to train personnel to operate the port of Haifa after the British withdrew.
"Kedma" - the first ship in the ZIM service
In 1947, Vidra joined the ZIM company, which was established in 1945, as deputy director and one of the four members of the company's executive committee. He was involved in the purchase of the company's first ship, "Kedma", which began operating in 1947. With the establishment of the State of Israel, ZIM began purchasing ships, developing passenger and cargo lines and training seafarers. Vidra was at the center of this activity, speaking writing and publishing about the need to expand the merchant fleet.
With the signing of the reparations agreement with Germany, he was invited, along with his ZIM management colleague Zvi Yehiali, to submit a proposal for increasing the merchant fleet to the governmental Reparations Committee. The proposal was accepted, and the ships built as part of the payments led to an accelerated growth of the Israeli merchant fleet in general and ZIM in particular.
Vidra promoted and developed the establishment of Zim's international trade lines alongside subsidiaries, representations and agencies worldwide. During his tenure, ZIM grew from a small company that operated only in the Mediterranean Sea to an international company that operated about 150 ships of various types (passengers, cargo, bulk and fuel tankers) on 21 regular routes worldwide.
In 1957, he was asked by the Israeli Minister of Finance Pinchas Sapir to help establish the National Shipping Company of Ghana, at the request of the President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The success of the company brought additional inquiries from other countries. Vidra was also behind the establishment of the National Shipping Company of Burma.
“ZIM’s Insult”
In May 1963, Vidra was appointed CEO of ZIM. Prior to his appointment, the company was managed by a quartet of directors who represented the shareholders. The last quartet consisted of Naftali Vidra, Zvi Yehiali, Yosef Barfel and Zvi Herman. The former was responsible for the commercial management and operation of the fleet. The director of the board was the representative of the treasury, Dr. Yaakov Arnon. The company, which ran into financial difficulties, did not do well under Vidra's scepter. In light of the losses and as a result of his lack of confidence in the director Michael Tzur, Vidra resigned from his position at the beginning of 1966 and left the company in which he served as director. Michael Tzur, who was appointed the new chairman of Zim, did not spare his predecessor from criticism and presented the company to the government and the public as a failure, while blaming and slandering Vidra and his colleagues on the board.
Vidra responded to the accusations in August 1966 when he published a dissertation entitled "ZIM's Insult", in which he detailed the events preceding his resignation and analyzed ZIM's economic-commercial situation up to that time. He justified the company's poor economic situation with three reasons: (1) shipping in Israel did not receive government incentives like other export industries in the economy, (2) the ships were sold to the company at an exorbitant price against its will, thus harming the fleet's profitability and its ability to compete in the maritime transport markets, and ( 3) Due to the development of aviation, passenger shipping became clearly unprofitable. The inevitable conclusion is: if the government wanted, from its own considerations, to own a fleet of passenger ships - let it do so on its own, at its own expense, while fully disconnecting from the ZIM company. These claims have never been officially denied. In light of the public debate sparked by Tzur about the state of the company and its management, Vidra called for the establishment of an independent investigative committee, "to proceed clearly, to study the problems, to hear all the parties and draw conclusions - without bias.”
No investigation was conducted. Chairman Michael Tzur appointed Meir Giron as CEO, who resigned from his position at the end of 1969 after a conflict with Tzur over Giron's demand to eliminate the passenger fleet. Vidra, who had demanded this years before, refused to deal with the accounts of the past when he was asked by the press to address the issue of Giron's resignation. Michael Tzur, who later became the CEO of the Israel Society, was convicted in May 1975 of accepting bribes and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Chairman of Israel Ports Authority
In 1969, Dr. Vidra was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Israel Ports Authority. During his tenure, the authority faced tense labor relations at the Port of Ashdod, the emergency period of the Yom Kippur War, the closing of the Suez Canal, the development of the Port of Eilat, increased technological development and the streamlining of all Israeli ports and their preparation for handling containers. He served in this position until 1981.
Academic career
While continuing to fulfill his public service obligations, Widra was simultaneously active in academia. He was an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Haifa, a member of the University's Board of Trustees, and Chairman of its Executive Committee. He worked to introduce shipping as an academic profession, and in the 1970s he established the Division of Shipping and Aviation Research at the University of Haifa, within the Department of Economics. Widra was involved in building the curriculum, training of the academic staff, and serving as a lecturer himself.
Establishment of the "Vidra Institute for Strategic Shipping Research"
Dr. Widra chaired a committee of the National Council for Research and Development that recommended establishing an independent research institution for shipping and aviation, which would deal with academic and economic research in these fields. Widra worked to raise funds for the establishment of the institute, and after it was established he became manager, and donated his salary from various consulting jobs to the institute's coffers. Wydra also worked to transfer the institute to the University of Haifa to further its existence as an academic body within the university, which was completed in 1987. With the inauguration of the institute in its new location, after Widra's death, it was renamed after its founder. The institute continues to operate as an independent research body within the University of Haifa, specializing in the fields of shipping and port research.
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