Itzhak Ben Zvi, leading member of Israel’s Labor Party and former president of the Jewish National Council of Palestine, forerunner of the Knesset, was today elected President of Israel to succeed the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann.
The election took place in the Israel Parliament by secret ballot. One hundred and ten of the 120 deputies participated. Ten members of the Parliament were absent; four of them are now in the United States. Mr. Ben Zvi received 62 votes. Of the other Presidential candidates. Rabbi Mordecai Nurok, who was sponsored by the Orthodox groups, received 40 votes on the third and last poll. Dr. Itzhak Gruenbaum, the left-wing Mapam candidate, received five votes, while five blank ballots were cast.
In the first two ballots, Mr. Ben Zvi received 48 votes, Rabbi Nurok 15, Dr. Gruenbaum 17 and Dr. Peretz Bernstein — the leader of the General Zionists — 18 votes. Twelve ballots were blank in each of these two counts.
Following the announcement of Mr. Ben Zvi’s elections, Jacob Hazan, leader of the left-wing Mapam Party, told Parliament that his party had switched on the third ballot to Mr. Ben Zvi in order “to defeat the combination of fascists and clerics who supported Rabbi Nurok.” This declaration provoked an uproar among the deputies. The Communists also trade a declaration revealing that they had voted for Dr. Gruenbaum.
The inauguration of the second President of Israel will take place in Parliament on Wednesday, it was officially announced. President-elect Ben Zvi was born in Poltava, Ukraine, 68 years ago. A Zionist from early youth, he visited Palestine in 1904. On his return to Russia, he became one of the founders of the Zionist Labor movement there. In 1907 he settled in Palestine where he soon established himself as one of the outstanding personalities among the pioneers, together with David Ben Gurion, Israel’s current Premier.
In 1912, Mr. Ben Zvi went to Constantinopole to study law and returned to Palestine two years later. However, he was banished “forever” from the country and in 1916 came to the United States where, together with Mr. Ben Gurion, he recruited volunteers for the Jewish Legion, returning with them to fight in the British Army which conquered Palestine, then ruled by the Turks.
During the period when Palestine was under British Mandate, Mr. Ben Zvi served for about 20 years as a member of the municipal council of Jerusalem. He was head of the Jewish National Council of Palestine since 1931 and appeared as one of the chief representatives of the Jews in Palestine before various British and international commissions dealing with the Palestine problem. He is an outstanding scholar with special interest in Oriental Jewish studies.
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