Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi

Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi was born in 1886 in Malyn

She was born Golda Lishansky in 1886 in Malyn, in the Kiev region of the Russian Empire. Her sisters included the sculptor Batia Lishansky and Sarah Lishansky, who founded the first Clalit clinic. She later took the name Yanait, after the Hasmonean king Alexander Yannai.

As a teenager she joined the Poale Zion party, and in 1904 she was arrested in Kiev and held in prison for months. In 1905 she was a delegate to the Seventh Zionist Congress in Basel. She studied agriculture in France and qualified as an agricultural engineer.

In 1908 she immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where she taught at the Hebrew Gymnasium. She was active in Bar Giora and Hashomer, and during World War I she linked Hashomer with Nili. In 1918 she married Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, and they had 2 sons.

After the war she founded a training farm for women in Jerusalem. She was active in the Haganah and organized secret immigration through Syria and Lebanon. Her son Eli was killed in March 1948 at Beit Keshet.

From 1952, as first lady, she opened the president's house to all parts of Israeli society. Her autobiography, We Are Olim, appeared in 1961. She received the Israel Prize in 1978 and died in 1979.