Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Figurine

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (1884-1963) | Historian, pioneer, Labor Zionist leader and Israel’s second President. Born in Ukraine as Yitzhak Shimshelevich, he was active in a Jewish defense group and involved in founding Poale Zion Association. In 1906, he escaped to Vilna after police discovered in his parents’ home a weapons cache belonging to the organization he headed. In 1907, he immigrated to Eretz Israel and helped establish the defense organizations Bar-Giora and Hashomer, and the journal HaAhdut. In 1915, the Ottomans expelled him and David Ben-Gurion to Egypt because of their Zionist activities. The two travelled to New York and founded the Hehalutz movement. In the 20‘s, he was active in the Haganah and appointed by the British High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, to the Advisory Council on Matters of Palestine, representing the Yishuv. Later, he was the chairman and president of the Executive Committee, on whose behalf he attended the Round Table Conference in London, 1939. After the state’s establishment, Ben-Zvi was elected a member of the first Knesset, and in 1952, he became Israel’s President, for three consecutive terms, until his death at 78.