Zvi Weinberg

Zvi Weinberg was born in 1935 in Kraków

Weinberg was born in Kraków, Poland, on 12 August 1935, to a family of Sanz Hasidim. In 1939 his family fled Poland and moved through Ukraine, Russia, Siberia, Uzbekistan and France. After World War II he went to Israel and later to the United States.

In the United States he attended high school, a yeshiva and university, and earned a PhD in French literature. He taught at universities in Ohio and California. In 1969 he moved to Toronto and was a professor at the University of Toronto for over 20 years.

In Canada he was deputy chairman of Canadian Professors for Peace in the Middle East and chaired an academic seminar on Zionist thought. He was active in the movement for the freedom of Soviet Jews.

He immigrated to Israel in 1992 and became a professor of literature at Bar-Ilan University. He was a founder of Yisrael BaAliyah, where he represented immigrants from North America. In 1996 he was elected to the 14th Knesset and sat on the Foreign Affairs and Defense, Constitution, Economic Affairs, and Education and Culture committees.

Weinberg had three sons and a daughter, and spoke many languages. He died on 21 December 2006 after a serious illness.