Yizhak Ben-Zvi

Yizhak Ben-Zvi , 1884-1963, president of Israel (1952-63), b. Russia, originally named Issac Shimshelevitz. A Zionist, he fled Russia in 1905 because of his activities in the Jewish self-defense movement and settled (1907) in Palestine. With David Ben-Gurion and other Zionist leaders he helped create the Jewish state. In 1952 he succeeded Chaim Weizmann as president of Israel; he was reelected in 1958 and again in 1962. He died in office in 1963. He was a historian and a scholar of note in the field of Jewish ethnology. His writings include The Moslem World and the Arab World (1937), The Exiled and the Redeemed (new ed. 1961), and The Hebrew Battalions: Letters (1969).

Ben-zvi, Itzhak (1884–1963) Israeli statesman, president (1952–63). After fleeing his native Russia, he settled in Palestine in 1907. Exiled (1915–18), he worked with David Ben-Gurion and other Zionist leaders to create the institutions basic to the formation of the state of Israel, including Histadrut, the leading labour organization, and the Mapai (Labour) Party.

Ben-Zvi, Yitzhak (b. 6 Dec. 1884, d. Apr. 1963). Hebrew scholar, President of Israel 1952–63 Born in Poltava (Ukraine), he became an active Zionist. He narrowly escaped the 1906 pogroms there and left for Palestine. Exiled by the Turks in 1915, he joined Ben-Gurion in the USA and returned to Palestine in 1918 to become a member of the Jewish Legion, fighting alongside the British. A co-founder of the Histadrut (General Federation of Jewish Labour) he was also a member of the self-governing National Council for Palestine Jews (Vaad Leumi), rising to become its chairman from 1931, president from 1944. He was one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948, and entered the first Parliament (Knesset) in the same year. He was President of Israel from the death of Weizmann until his own death.