Background
ITZHAK BEN-ZVI was born Isaac Shimshelivitz on Nov. 24, 1884, in the Ukrainian town of Poltava. His dedication to the Zionist cause was largely influenced by his father, a member of the Hibbat Zion, a pre-Zionist movement.
ITZHAK BEN-ZVI was born Isaac Shimshelivitz on Nov. 24, 1884, in the Ukrainian town of Poltava. His dedication to the Zionist cause was largely influenced by his father, a member of the Hibbat Zion, a pre-Zionist movement.
Studied in Hebrew schools and at the University of Kiev.
His efforts to help Jews defend themselves against pogroms in 1905 led to his banishment to Siberia, but he escaped and in 1907 settled in Palestine.
Itzhak Ben-Zvi and David Ben-Gurion returned to Palestine, but at the outbreak of World War I were expelled for their Zionist activities. From exile in the United States they organized the American Battalion of the Jewish Legion. Ben-Zvi returned to Palestine in 1918 to fight with the Jewish Legion in the British Army.
After 1920, while Palestine was governed by Great Britain under a mandate from the League of Nations, Ben-Zvi held prominent positions in the Yishuv, the Jewish community. He helped found the Histadrut (the General Federation of Labor) in 1920 and participated in the founding of the Jewish Agency.
Ben-Zvi was elected to the Knesset (parliament) on the Mapai (Socialist Workers) Party ticket.
He served as the director of the Institute for the Research of Jewish Communities in the Middle East, which he founded and which, now known as the Ben-Zvi Institute, is part of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.