Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (Hebrew: יִצְחָק בֶּן־צְבִי‎‎ Yitshak Ben-Tsvi; 24 November 1884 – 23 April 1963; born Izaak Shimshelevich) was a historian, ethnologist, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving President of Israel.

He preserved oral histories, gathered firsthand accounts and documentary evidence, and published a number of books and articles on the subject.

He shed light on their traditions, language, folklore, and religious practices through his work, which frequently focused on the Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish as well as the Samaritan[1] communities.

[2][3][4] Born in Poltava in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was the eldest son of Zvi Shimshi (originally Shimshelevich), a writer and communal worker, and Karina (Atara), daughter of the rabbi Israel Leib Kupilevich.

[6] As a member of the B'ne Moshe and Hovevei Zion movements in Ukraine, Zvi Shimshelevich was one of the organizers of the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in the fall of 1897, together with Theodor Herzl.

He completed his first year at Kiev University studying natural sciences before dropping out to dedicate himself to the newly formed Russian Poale Zion which he co-founded with Ber Borochov.

Following Borochov's arrest, March 1906, and subsequent exile in the United States, Ben Zvi became leader of the Russian Poale Zion.

He moved their headquarters from Poltava to Vilna and established a publishing house, the Hammer, which produced the party's paper, The Proletarian Idea.

On the first evening of the conference a group of nine men met in Ben Zvi's room where, swearing themselves to secrecy with Shochat as their leader, they agreed to set up an underground military organisation - Bar-Giora, named after Simon Bar Giora.

[11] At the Poale Zion conference held in April 1911, Ben Zvi announced his plan to move to Constantinople to study Ottoman law.

By the following year many of the second Aliyah activists had gathered in the Ottoman capital, with Shochat, Ben Gurion, Moshe Shertok, David Remez, Golda Lishansky, Manya Wilbushewitch and Joseph Trumpeldor all there.

[20] In 1919 he was one of the founders of Ahdut Ha'Avoda which he helped reshape as a non-Marxist, Social Democratic party, which joined the bourgeois World Zionist Organization rather than the Communist International.

[23] Zionism, Ben-Zvi concluded, was good for the Palestinian peasants since they are "interested in the expansion of employment and industry in the country and the improvement of the workers' lot, which of necessity results from Jewish settlement and immigration.

[30] After the death of Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion proposed Yitzhak Ben-Zvi as the candidate for the presidency of the state at the party convention held on November 26, 1952.

[31] Yitzhak and Rachel Ben-Zvi declined to move from their residence on Ibn Gabirol Street in Jerusalem to a luxurious and representative mansion.

Throughout Ben-Zvi's tenure, delegates from Jewish communities spanning North Africa, Iran, Bukhara, Hungary, Babylonia, Romania, Kurdistan, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Italy, India, Greece, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Latin America visited in this capacity.

[38] He authored over 150 scientific publications in these fields,[39] including approximately twenty books and numerous articles on publicistic matters and research.

[32] His initial writings on the research fields he later extensively explored were penned during his journey to the Land of Israel in 1904, during which he visited biblical sites and was impressed by encounters with the Samaritan community, prompting further investigations.

Following the establishment of Israel, he turned his attention to significant discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls, contributing to the study of Jewish history and culture.

Additionally, he was involved preserving biblical manuscripts from Jewish communities in the Arab world, notably the Aleppo Codex, which became a focal point of his research and publications.

Subsequently, his research interests focused on the Land of Israel, local history, and the study of sub-divisions and sects within the Jewish people.

[32] Additionally, Ben-Zvi explored the demographic origins of the rural Arab population, suggesting potential Jewish ancestry among a significant portion of them.

His first encounters with the community were in 1908, when he first met the elder Abraham son of Marhiv Zeadaka Hazafrir, from whom he rented a room in Jaffa, aiming to learn Arabic.

He developed a fascination for the Samaritans, establishing friendships, visiting, and exchanging letters with High Priests, leaders and scholars such as Yaakov son of Aharon, Abu Shafi, and Yefet Zadaka.

[1] As a leader of the Jewish Agency and the National Council, and finally as president, Ben Zvi was viewed by the Samaritans as an appropriate person to address their grievances.

In 2008, Ben-Zvi's wooden hut was moved to Kibbutz Beit Keshet, which his son helped to found, and the interior was restored with its original furnishings.