JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Its Yishuv during the Ottoman Empire,” 1955), which is based
on Turkish documents and rabbinical responsa of the period.
A large part of this work appears in English translation in L.
Finkelstein (ed.), The Jews, their History, Culture and Religion
(1960), pp. 602–88. His book The Hebrew Battalion Letters
(1969) also appeared in English. A volume of his memoirs,
He-Ḥazon ve-Hagshamato appeared in 1968. His complete
works, including diaries, letters, and articles were republished,
starting in 1965, by Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, a memorial institute
founded to perpetuate Ben-Zvi’s interests and works.
Bibliography: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, In Memoriam (1965); R.
Ben-Zvi, Coming Home (1963); S. Shunami, Bibliografyah shel I. Ben-
Zvi (1958), with a biography by S.Z. Shazar; Y. Carmel, I. Ben-Zvi: mi-
Tokh Yoman Beit ha-Nasi (1967).
[Shneur Zalman Shazar]
BEN-ZVI, RAḤEL YANAIT (1886–1979), labor leader and
writer; from 1918, wife of Izhak *Ben-Zvi. Born in Malin,
Ukraine, Raḥel Yanait was educated in Russia and in Nancy,
France, where she pursued studies in agronomy. After helping
to create the *Po’alei Zion labor movement in Russia, she
settled in Ereẓ Israel as a teacher in 1908, and was a cofounder
of the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem, the second modern
high school in the country. She played a pioneering role in
*Ha-Shomer and Tenu’at ha-Po’alot (Women’s Labor Movement),
and coedited the weekly Aḥdut, the first Hebrew organ
of the Po’alei Zion movement in Ereẓ-Israel, from its founding
in 1910. After World War I, she became a founder of *Aḥdut
ha-Avodah labor party and a leader of the *Haganah in Jerusalem,
continuing her career as an educationist, and in 1920
established near Jerusalem’s Talpiot quarter a girls’ agricultural
high school of which she was the first principal. In 1948,
she was the guiding spirit behind the founding of an agricultural
youth village in Ein Kerem. After her husband became
president of Israel in 1952, she assisted him in his official duties
and worked particularly to make the president’s home a
popular meeting place for all the communities of Israel. Upon
her husband’s death in 1963, she became an active member of
Yad Ben-Zvi, his memorial institute. She was the recipient of
the Israel Prize for special contribution to Israel state and society
in 1978. Her memoirs have been published: Anu Olim
(1959; Coming Home, 1963) and Eli (Heb., 1957), a book written
together with her husband about their son, who died in the
Israeli War of Independence. She also coedited her husband’s
writings, which began to appear in 1965.
Bibliography: H.M. Sachar, Aliyah: The Peoples of Israel
(1961), 115–51.
[Getzel Kressel]
BEN-ZVI, SHLOMO (1964– ), media owner. Born in London
as Michael Goldblum, Shlomo Ben Zvi was educated at
Netiv Meir Yeshivah High School in Jerusalem and various
other national-religious yeshivot in Israel and studied philosophy
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After making
a substantial fortune in real estate and the technology sector
Ben-zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities of the East
in Europe, he decided to become active in the Israeli media at
the start of the 21st century. His first venture was the Tekhelet
cable TV channel, whose programming concentrated on different
aspects of Jewish life and which began broadcasting
in 2003. He also purchased 20 per cent of Israel’s Channel
Ten together with cosmetics heir Ronald *Lauder, who purchased
40 per cent.
He went on to concentrate his holdings in the right-wing
and religious media, buying the weekly Makor Rishon in 2003
and acquiring control of the national-religious daily *Ha-Ẓofeh
and the monthly of the settlers movement, Nekudah, in 2004.
His plans called for a relaunch of an expanded Makor Rishon
in early 2005 and the start-up of a new right-wing daily newspaper.
Ben Zvi was critical of the Israeli media for not being
patriotic enough and for showing the IDF in a negative light.
He was a member of the right-wing “Jewish Leadership” faction
of the *Likud Party.
[Anshel Pfeffer (2nd ed.)]
BEN-ZVI, ZEEV (1904–1952), Israeli sculptor, whose work
influenced a generation of sculptors. Ben-Zvi was born in
Ryki, Poland and studied at the Warsaw Academy of Art before
immigrating to Palestine in 1924. He entered the *Bezalel
School in Jerusalem that year and studied under Boris *Schatz.
Ben-Zvi specialized in portrait heads in beaten copper and
molded plaster, which he treated in a cubist manner. When
the New Bezalel School was opened in 1936 Ben-Zvi was appointed
teacher of sculpture. During 1937 he visited France
and England. On the outbreak of World War II, he executed
the first model of Outcry – a hand lifted to the heavens. Outcry
symbolized the horror and rebellion of Jews against the
Holocaust in Europe – a subject to which Ben-Zvi frequently
returned. In 1947, he executed his moving monument, In
Memory of the Children of the Diaspora, at Mishmar ha-Emek.
From 1947 to 1949 he tried to alleviate the hardships of the illegal
immigrants detained by the British government in the
Cyprus detention camps by teaching them art. Ben-Zvi’s works
are to be found in museums and private collections in Israel
and Great Britain. He won the Israel Prize for art in 1953 and
the Dizengoff Prize in 1952.
Bibliography: H. Gamzu, Ben-Zvi, Sculptures (1955).
[Fritz Schiff]
BEN-ZVI INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF JEWISH
COMMUNITIES OF THE EAST, Israeli research institute.
The Institute was founded in 1947 by Izhak *Ben-Zvi, who later
became Israel’s second president. His public career was highlighted
by passionate concern for Jews of Muslim countries
and the East, who in the 20th century were uprooted from their
ancient communities. Their rich literature, traditions, and customs
might have been completely lost were it not for the great
efforts made to preserve them. The institute devotes itself to
preserving the precious cultural legacy of these communities
of the East. The scholars, scientists, poets, and communal leaders
of Sephardi and Eastern communities made an indelible
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