Yitzhak Navon
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| Yitzhak Navon | |
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| In office April 19, 1978 – May 5, 1983 |
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| Preceded by | Ephraim Katzir |
| Succeeded by | Chaim Herzog |
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| Born | April 9, 1921 Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Political party | Alignment |
| Spouse | Ofira Resnikov |
Yitzhak Navon (born April 9, 1921) is an Israeli politician, diplomat and author. He was the fifth President of Israel.
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[edit] Personal life
Born in Jerusalem, Navon is a multilingual descendant of a Sephardi family of rabbis. On his father's side, he is descended from Spanish Jews who settled in Turkey after the explusion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. The family (Baruch Mizrahi or Al Mashraki) moved to Jerusalem in 1670. On his mother's side, he is descended from the renown kabbalist Haim Ben Attar. The Ben-Atar family came from Morocco to Jerusalem in 1884. [1] Navon studied Hebrew literature and Islamic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After serving in the Haganah in Jerusalem, he was sent by the Israeli foreign service to Uruguay and Argentina. Navon's wife Ofira, who was considerably younger than him, died of cancer. They had two children.
[edit] Political career
In 1951, Navon became the political secretary of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. The following year he was appointed Ben-Gurion's bureau chief. He remained in this position under Prime Minister Moshe Sharett. In 1963, he became a department head at the Ministry of Education and Culture. Two years later, Navon was elected to the Knesset as a member of Ben-Gurion's Rafi, which merged into the Israeli Labour Party (part of the Alignment) in 1968. Navon served as deputy speaker of the Knesset and chairman of the Knesset Committee on Foreign and Defense Affairs.
[edit] Presidency
In 1978, Navon was elected fifth President of Israel. He was the first president with small children to move into Beit Hanassi, the presidential residence in Jerusalem. His wife, Ofira, was active in promoting the welfare of Israeli children.
Although the Israeli presidency is a ceremonial office, Navon was an outspoken advocate of a judicial commission of inquiry to probe Israel's role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre perpetrated by Lebanese Falangists in 1982.
In 1983, Navon turned down the opportunity to run for a second term of office. Instead he returned to politics, the first and only Israeli ex-president to do so. When the polls showed that Navon was more popular than Labor chairman Shimon Peres, Peres was pressured to step aside and allow Navon to take over the party leadership. Navon's fluency in Arabic made him especially popular among Arab and Mizrahi voters. But Navon did not accept the chairmanship. In 1984, he was elected to the Knesset and served as minister of education and culture from 1984 to 1990. He remained in the Knesset until 1992, after which he left politics.
[edit] Literary output
Navon wrote two musicals, which were successfully performed at Habimah, Israel's national theater in Tel Aviv.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Biography at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Biography at the Jewish Virtual Library
- Yitzhak Navon pages at the Knesset
- (Hebrew) Some songs with lyrics and/or music by Yitzhak Navon
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Zevulon Hammer |
Education Minister of Israel 1984-1990 |
Succeeded by Zevulon Hammer |
| Preceded by Ephraim Katzir |
President of Israel 1978–1983 |
Succeeded by Haim Herzog |
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