Shevah Weiss

Shevah Weiss was born in 1935 in Boryslav

Weiss was born in 1935 in Boryslav, Poland. During the Holocaust his family hid behind a double wall and later in a cellar under a kindergarten, helped by 2 neighbors, one Ukrainian and one Polish. Both women were later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

He came to the Land of Israel in 1947 with Youth Aliyah and studied at the Hadassim youth village. After his army service he earned a BA and MA from the Hebrew University in 1961 and a PhD in political science in 1969. As a student he wrote quiz books and hosted a quiz program on Kol Israel from 1957 to 1962.

He taught political science at Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa, where he became a professor in 1975. He sat on the Haifa city council from 1969 to 1981. He was a Labor member of the Knesset from 1981 to 1999, a Deputy Speaker from 1988 to 1992, and Speaker from 1992 to 1996.

On November 4, 1995, he was on stage at the Tel Aviv rally where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. He chaired the Yad Vashem Council from 2000 and was ambassador to Poland from 2001 to 2003. In 2008 he cofounded a center for research on Israel and the Jewish Diaspora at the University of Warsaw.

He was married to Dr. Esther Weiss, who died in 2005, and they had 2 children. He died in Tel Aviv on February 3, 2023, and was buried on Mount Herzl.