Background

Haim Balzan was born on May 5, 1910, in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. He was the son of Esther Balzan, daughter of Lion Krimnstiin Ben Zion Balzan (1885-1941), who was a Bible commentator, trader, and active Zionist. His grandfather, Samuel Balzan, was the president of the "Eastern Axis" in Bessarabia and Zionist Congress in the 12th.

Education

In 1935, after studying at the University of Bucharest, then Hayim Baltsan settled in Mandatory Palestine, where he studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Career

Hayim Baltsan became the founder and editor-in-chief of the news department of the HaBoker newspaper (Morning, 1935-1942), worked as a correspondent for the Haaretz (Land) newspaper in Turkey, Eastern and Central Europe.

During the Second World War, Hayim Baltsan served in the British troops, in the guard of the US Embassies (1942-1943) and Great Britain (1934-1944) in Istanbul. He was the director of the organization for helping refugees HIAS (Jewish Association for Aid to Immigrants) in Turkey (1944-1945) and Czechoslovakia (1945-1948). After the formation of the State of Israel, he headed the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Defense (since 1949). In 1970 he founded and headed (until 1973) the Faculty of Journalism of Tel Aviv University.

In 1974, Hayim Baltsan co-founded the "Movement for Uniform Hebrew Spelling", drew up the "Proposal for the Reform of the Hebrew Spelling" and a number of extremely popular transliterated Hebrew-English, Anglo-Hebrew (since 1989), Russian-Hebrew, and Hebrew-Russian ( since 1991) of dictionaries that have withstood many reprints both in Israel and in the USA.

In 1950 Hayim Baltsan founded, together with a series of newspaper editors, the news agency Ati'm ("Israeli newspapers incorporated") and was director and editor in chief for 26 years.

Personality

Hayim Baltsan had taken an active part in rescuing Jews from Nazi-occupied territories and in "Illegal Immigration".

Connections

His wife, Dr. Ruth Beltzen, died in 1999. He was buried with his wife. Survived by two daughters and a son: Dr. Revital Balzan Sheskin (dentist) Dr. Astrit Balzan (pianist and professor of musicology) and Avikam Balzan.

Among famous members of his family are his cousin, the famous Moldavian poet Joseph Baltsan, his uncles, a Hebrew prose writer and researcher of Hebrew literature Benzion Baltsan and lexicographer, author of the first trilingual Hebrew-Yiddish-Romanian dictionary (1937) nephew - journalist and publisher Lev (Leonid) Baltsan.

Mother:

Esther Balzan

Spouse:

Ruth Beltzen

Daughter:

Revital Balzan Sheskin

Daughter:

Astrit Balzan

Son:

Avikam Balzan

Cousin:

Joseph Baltsan

Uncle:

Benzion Baltsan

nephew:

Lev Baltsan

Grandfather:

Lion Krimnstiin Ben Zion Balzan

Lion Krimnstiin Ben Zion Balzan (1885-1941) was a Bible commentator, trader, and active Zionist. His grandfather, Samuel Balzan, was the president of the "Eastern Axis" in Bessarabia and Zionist Congress in the 12th.