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Ben Zvi, Yitzhak (1884 - 1963)
 Yishuv leader, second
President of the State of Israel. Born in Poltava, Ukraine; received a Jewish
education in a Heder and, later, graduated from a Russian gymnasium [high
school]. In 1905, he entered the Unversity of Kiev, but his studies were
interrupted by the general strike that year.During the 1905 pogroms he became
active in the Jewish self-defense organization in Poltava and played a leading
role in Po'alei Zion - the Zionist socialist party, which was founded in
Poltava in 1906.
In 1907, Ben- Zvi settled in Eretz Yisrael. In the same year he was sent
as a Po'alei Zion delegate from Eretz Yisrael to the Eighth Zionist Congress,
which took place in the Hague. In 1907, Ben-Zvi participated in the founding
of the Bar Giora self- defense organization, and in 1909, along with labor
leader Rachel Yanait, whom he married in 1918, of the Ha-Shomer ("The
Watchman") assocation of Jewish watchmen in Eretz Yisrael (see Struggle and Defense
).
In 1909, he was sent by Po'ale Zion to Turkey, where he established ties
with the Jewish communities and with Jewish labor movement leaders.In
1910, Ben- Zvi, together with Rachel Yanait and other, founded the first
Hebrew socialist periodical in Eretz Yisrael - Ahdut (Unity).
With the outbreak of World War I, Ben Zvi, together with David Ben Gurion*,
was deported. Both made their way to New York, where, in 1915, they founded
the He- halutz movement in America, and established branches in many cities.
In 1918, they returned to Palestine as soldiers of the Jewish Legion in
the British Royal Fusiliers.
In 1919, Ben-Zvi was elected to the central committee of the Ahdut Ha'avodah
party and a year later to the secretariat of the Histadrut - The General
Federation of Labor in Eretz Yisrael. With the establishment of the Va'ad
Le'umi (National Committee) in 1920, he was elected to its leadership,
first as a member, later as chairman (1931), and finally as president
in 1945.
From 1920, the year the Haganah was founded, Ben-Zvi was one of the most
prominent figures of the Yishuv self-defense organization. His son Eli,
a Kibbutz member, was killed in the War of Independence*.
After the establishment of the State of Israel, Ben-Zvi was elected as
a "Mapai" (Labor) member to the first and second Knesset (parliament),
in 1949 and 1952.
Upon the passing of Chaim Weizmann* Ben-Zvi was elected President of
the State in 1952, and in 1957 was returned by the Knesset to that office
for five more years. In 1962, he was elected president for a third term
and died in office on April 23, 1963.
Ben-Zvi headed the Institute for the Study of Oriental Jewish Communities
in the Middle East, which he founded in 1948, later named the Ben-Zvi
Institute. His scholarly works were devoted mainly to research on communities
and sects and to the geography of the land of Israel, its ancient populations,
antiquities and traditions.
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