Rabbi Avraham Issac Kook was most influential in building the State of Israel, a poll found.
The religious Zionist leader, who served as the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi before the Jewish state was even established, topped a survey that asked Israelis to rank Jewish leaders according to their contribution to the state.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, was second in the Ynet-Gesher Society poll conducted for Israel’s 60th birthday. The Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and Zionism founder Theodor Herzl came in third and fourth.
The telephone survey contacted thousands of adult Jewish, Hebrew-speaking Israelis. No margin of error was provided.
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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.
