Zalman Shazar

Zalman Shazar was born in 1889 in Mir

Shazar was born Shneur Zalman Rubashov in Mir, in the Russian Empire, to a Hasidic family of the Chabad movement. He grew up in the town of Stolbtsy, where he learned Hebrew language and culture. In 1905 he joined the Poale Zion party.

From 1908 to 1912 he studied at a Jewish academic institution in Saint Petersburg. From 1912 to 1919 he studied history and philosophy at universities in Freiburg, Strasbourg and Berlin. He first visited the Land of Israel in 1911.

In 1920 he married Rachel Katznelson, and they had one daughter. He immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1924 and became active in the Histadrut and among the founders of Mapai. He edited the newspaper Davar from 1944 to 1949.

He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 and served as Minister of Education in the first government, when the compulsory education law was passed. He left the Knesset in 1956 and served as acting chairman of the Jewish Agency's Jerusalem Executive until 1960.

The Knesset elected him president in 1963 and again in 1968. He made state visits abroad and was succeeded by Ephraim Katzir in 1973. He died in 1974 and was buried on Mount Herzl.