2. EARLY LIFE
-Ben-Zvi was born in Poltava which is in the Russian
Empire
-Born on November 24 1884 and died on April 23 1963
-Oldest son of Zvi Shimshelevitz
-In 1905, Ben-Zvi was active in the Jewish self-defense
organized in Ukraine to defend Jews during the pogroms
-He studied law at Istanbul University from 1912 to
1914
-In 1915, he moved to New York City where he engaged in
Zionist activities
-Born into a family that followed Jewish tradition
3. EARLY INFLUENCES
-His influence was his father Zvi Shimshelevitz
-Shimshi was a leading Zionist activist in the 19th century
-Shimshi was the only member of the First Zionist
Congress to live to see the birth of Israel
4. Contribution to Zionism
-Zionist labor movement leader and historian
-Elected second president of the state of Israel
-One of the founders of a Jewish defense organization in
Ukraine
-After immigrating to Palestine, Ben-Zvi was a central figure
in Hashomer
-Yitzhak Ben-Zvi took great interest in the various
Jewish communities that came to Israel, and in the
history of Jewish settlement in the land of Israel
5. -He himself wrote twenty volumes on the history of Jewish
communities and on the unbroken chain of Jewish
settlement in the Land of Israel since the days of the
Second Temple.
-His work led to Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
-After his death, the Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi research
institution was established
