Israel’s Knesset, the Parliament, will elect the nation’s third President tomorrow, giving the highest office in the land to 73 -year-old Zalman Shazar, scholar, writer, veteran labor leader and close personal friend, since he was 16, of the late Izhak Ben-Zvi, his predecessor in the Presidency.
Under the law, the Knesset must elect a President within 30 days of the demise of the former holder of the office. Mr. Ben-Zvi died April 23. Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz has been the Acting President under Israel’s law of succession.
The Liberal party has nominated one of its co-presidents, Peretz Bernstein, for the Presidency. However, that nomination was intended only to demonstrate the party’s feeling that the highest office is not necessarily a “monopoly” of the dominant Mapai party. Mr. Ben-Zvi had been a member of Mapai.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
