Ben Zvi, Rachel Yanait (1886–1979)
Ben Zvi, Rachel Yanait (1886–1979)
First lady of Israel who co-founded the Shomer, her country's first defense force. Born Rachel Yanait in Russia in 1886; died in 1979; married Itzhak Ben Zvi (president of Israel).
Born in Russia in 1886, Rachel Yanait Ben Zvi co-founded the Poalei Zion movement there in 1906. Two years later, she came to Eretz Israel where she established a Hebrew high school and the country's first socialist journal entitled Ahdut; she was also often a delegate to World Zionist Congresses. Her partner in her work, Itzhak Ben Zvi, became her husband and Israel's second president (1952), making her first lady from 1952 to 1963. Both were active in founding the Shomer, Israel's first defense force. After World War II, Rachel Ben Zvi was known as an educator of both female agricultural workers and youth. Her autobiography Coming Home was published in English in the U.S. (1964) by Herzl Press, based on her Hebrew text, Anu Olim (1959). She also wrote Before Golda, the biography of Manya Shochat , who created the first collective in Eretz Israel in 1907. The book was published in Jerusalem in 1976 and reprinted by Biblio Press in 1989.