Yitzhak Navon
| Yitzhak Navon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 5th President of Israel | |
|
In office 24 May 1978 – 5 May 1983 |
|
| Prime Minister | Menachem Begin |
| Preceded by | Ephraim Katzir |
| Succeeded by | Chaim Herzog |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
9 April 1921 Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine |
| Died | 6 November 2015 (aged 94) Jerusalem, Israel |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Political party | Alignment |
| Spouse(s) |
Ofira Resnikov (1963–93, her death) Miri Shafir (2008–15, his death) |
| Children | 2 |
| Profession | Author |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Signature |  |
Yitzhak Rachamim Navon (Hebrew: יצחק נבון; 9 April 1921 – 6 November 2015) was an Israeli politician, diplomat, and author. He served as the fifth President of Israel between 1978 and 1983 as a member of the center-left Alignment party. He was the first Israeli president to be Sephardi and born in Jerusalem, then within the British Mandate for Palestine, while all previous presidents were born in and immigrated from the Russian Empire.
Born in Jerusalem to Yosef and Miryam Navon, a descendant of a Sephardi family of rabbis. On his father's side, he was descended from Spanish Jews who settled in Turkey after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. The family (Baruch Mizrahi family or Al Mashraki) moved to Jerusalem in 1670. On his mother's side, he was descended from the renowned Moroccan-Jewish kabbalist Chaim ibn Attar, who emigrated to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem in mid-1742.
He attended the "Doresh Tziyon" beit midrash, the "Takhemoni" school and Hebrew University Secondary School, where he developed an ability in Islamic and Arab texts. Navon studied Arabic and Islamic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He taught Hebrew literature for some years. After the Second World War ended many survivors and displaced persons came to live in Palestine. Navon decided to join the Haganah's Arab Intelligence Unit working undercover in Jerusalem. During the war Navon was in a secret basement listening to tapped conversations of the British Army. He was fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Ladino, French and English; an expert linguist with dovish inclinations. Later he was sent by the Israeli foreign service to Uruguay and Argentina to help hunt Nazis. Navon's wife Ofira, died of cancer in 1993. They had two children: Naama and Erez. He died in Jerusalem on 7 November 2015, aged 94.
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