One of the founders of Israel’s navy and its first commander, American-born Shaul Ben-Zvi, is to be promoted posthumously to the rank of rear admiral.
Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin authorized the promotion for Ben-Zvi, who died last year at the age of 72.
Rabin is to award the rank to Ben-Zvi’s widow, Rose Shulman, at a ceremony scheduled to take place in the coming days.
Ben-Zvi was born Paul Shulman in Connecticut in 1922.
He attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis during World War II, where he met David Ben-Gurion.
In 1946 he retired from the U.S. Navy and joined the New York operations of the “Mossad for Aliya Bet” a network smuggling arms and immigrants to Israel.
He came to Israel in May 1946 and was appointed the fledgling navy’s chief of staff and later its first commander.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
