Rahel Yanait Ben-Zvi
Rahel and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi at the President's residence in Jerusalem, 1962.
Courtesy of the Israel National Photo Collection via Wikimedia Commons
Long before she became Israel’s First Lady in 1952, Rahel Yanait Ben-Zvi shaped the country by helping create many of its most important organizations. Born Golda Lishansky, she represented her hometown of Malin, Ukraine, at the 1905 Zionist Congress, then helped found the Po’alei Zion socialist party in 1906. She Hebraicized her name to Rahel Yanait when she made Aliyah in 1908. She helped found the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem and the self-defense group Ha-Shomer. She spent World War I coordinating between Ha-Shomer and Nili, a Jewish spy ring, then helped lead secretive operations against the British, in addition to her active involvement in the labor movement. She wrote ten books and hundreds of articles on the history and evolution of the Yishuv and the State.
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Early Life
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Making Aliyah
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Political Activities and Stances
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Public Service as First Lady and After
When her husband began his tenure as the second president of the State of Israel (1952–1963) she took an active role as First Lady. She is credited for the design of the President’s House and ensuring its unique character, with its easy accessibility and special status among the new immigrants of multiple ethnic groups who had recently immigrated to Israel from many diasporas. After the death of Izhak she initiated the establishment of Yad Ben-Zvi, an institution dedicated to research and publication of studies on the history of Erez Israel and on the ethnic heritage of the Sephardi and Eastern Jews, as well as to bringing the fruits of scholarship to the people via seminars, conferences, and field trips. In the 1960s and 1970s Yanait dedicated her efforts to renewal of the ancient Jewish settlement at Peki’in in the Galilee and promotion of the ideology of Erez Israel ha-Shlemah (The Greater Land of Israel Movement). In recognition of her contribution to the country and its society she was awarded the Henrietta Szold Prize in 1958, honorary citizenship of Jerusalem in 1965, and the most prestigious award in Israel, the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, in 1978.
Rahel Yanait Ben-Zvi was a central figure and one of the leading women activists of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine and in the State of Israel. She was a prolific writer, who authored ten books, participated in the editing of six more, and published over 500 articles and notes. Her personal biography parallels and reflects a critical period in the modern history of the Jewish people—“an account of the fateful change in Jewish history with which her life was intertwined—the pioneering effort which led to the state of Israel” (Coming Home). Her life story is one of the shaping of ideology and realization of the New Yishuv, its character and its accomplishments. In addition, it reflects the perception, status and contribution of Jewish women in Palestine/Israel, balancing the androcentric Israeli pioneering ethos.
Selected Works
Yanait, Rahel and Izhak Ben-Zvi. Eli (Hebrew). Jerusalem: 1957.
Yanait Ben-Zvi, Rahel. Anu Olim: Pirke Hayim (We Ascend). Tel Abib: Am ‘oved, 1959.
Yanait Ben-Zvi, Rahel. Coming Home. Translated from the Hebrew by David Harris and Julian Meltzer. Tel Aviv: Massadah, 1963.
Yanait Ben-Zvi, Rahel. Derakhai Siparti (I Told My Way). Jerusalem: Kiryat-Sefer, 1971.
Kark, Ruth. “Interviews with Rahel Yanait Ben-Zvi.” 1977–1979.
Michaeli, Ben-Zion. Ha-Geveret ha-rishonah (The First Lady). Tel Aviv: Milo, 1992.
Rubinstein, Shimon, editor. Rahel Yanait Ben-Zvi: Written Words (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1978.
Shilo, Margalit. “Rahel Yanit Ben-Zvi” (Hebrew). In Sefer Aliyah II, edited by Z. Zahor. Jerusalem: 1997.
Shilo, Margalit, Ruth Kark and Galit Hasan-Rokem, editors. ha-‘Ivriyot ha-hadashot: nashim ba-yishuv uva Tsiyonut bi-rei ha-migdar (Jewish Women in the Yishuv and Zionism: A Gender Perspective). Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2001.
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