Career
Born in an area that was later to become part of Poland, Barzilai joined Hashomer Hatzair at the age of 11. In 1932 he moved to Paris to study, before making aliyah to Mandate Palestine in 1934. In Palestine he joined the HeHalutz movement, and in 1938 was elected head of the independent settlements department of Kibbutz Artzi.
In 1939 he was one of the founders of kibbutz Negba.
In 1947 he became secretary of the World Union of Mapam. Between 1948 and 1951 he worked as the Israeli consul in Poland.
He was first elected to the Knesset on Mapam"s list in 1955, and was appointed Minister of Health in David Ben-Gurion"s government. After the 1959 elections he continued as Minister of Health.
Although he was re-elected in 1961, Mapam were excluded from the government and Barzilai lost his cabinet position.
However, he did serve as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. In the 1965 elections he lost his seat, but was re-appointed Minister of Health by Levi Eshkol. Following his death, the hospital in Ashkelon (whose cornerstone he had laid in 1961) was renamed Barzilai Medical Center in his honour.