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Zalman Shazar (Rubashov)3rd President of Israel
Date of Birth: 24.11.1889
Country:  Israel |
Content:
Zalman Shazar: The Third President of Israel
Zalman Shazar, the third president of Israel, was born in a small village in Belarus. He is mostly known to modern Israelis as the face on the two-hundred shekel banknote and to the residents of Jerusalem as the person after whom one of the city's boulevards is named. Shazar, whose ancient Hebrew surname was derived from his own initials, was originally called Shneur Zalman Rubashov in Russia.
Biography
Zalman Shazar's biography contains many interesting twists and turns. Although he transformed from a Lubavitch Hasid to a Zionist-socialist at a young age, he maintained a close relationship with the spiritual leader of Chabad in New York until his death. Throughout his life, Shazar held various positions, including a historian, the editor-in-chief of the labor newspaper "Davar" and the publishing house "Am Oved," and a functionary of international Zionist organizations.
Shazar was a co-author of the Israeli Declaration of Independence and served as the Minister of Education in the first Israeli government, where he introduced a law on compulsory secondary education. When David Ben-Gurion promised him the position of ambassador to the Soviet Union, Shazar readily resigned from the government, preparing to go to Moscow. However, he was never appointed as ambassador.
Afterwards, Shazar had to spend ten years in different bureaucratic positions in the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency. Eventually, his fellow party members remembered him and appointed him as the president of the country. He served two terms in this position from 1963 to 1973, and he passed away on October 5, 1974, at the age of 85.
