Uzzi Ornan

Uzzi Ornan
Born	June 7, 1923 Jerusalem
Nationality	Israeli
Other names	Uzziel Halperin
Occupation	Professor
Known for	Linguistics, social activism

Uzzi Ornan (Hebrew: עוזי אורנן‎‎; ISO 259-3: ʕuzzi ʔornan) (born June 7, 1923) is an Israeli linguist and social activist. Ornan is a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, professor of natural languages computing at the Technion and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ornan was a member of the Israeli Canaanite movement, founded by his brother Yonatan Ratosh. He is the founder of the League against religious coercion in Israel and an active supporter of the separation of church and state.

Ornan was born in Jerusalem as Uzziel Halperin, son of Yechiel Halperin, a Hebrew teacher and supporter of Chaim Weizmann, and Paulia, a member of Poale Zion. His parents immigrated to Mandate-era Palestine in 1919, as pioneers of the Third Aliyah. One of his brothers was Yonatan Ratosh.

In his youth, Ornan was active in the Irgun as a bomb-maker. In 1944 he was detained by the British authorities. Subsequently he was deported to and imprisoned in British prison camps in Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya, where he was held until the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

...
Wikipedia