Navon, Yitzhak

(1921- )

   Israel's fifth president. He was born in Jerusalem to prominent Sephardi (see ORIENTAL JEWS) lineage, the Navon family, one of the oldest and most distinguished Jerusalem Sephardi families. On his father's side, he came from a wealthy Sephardi family that arrived in Palestine from Constantinople (Turkey) in the 17th century. On his maternal side, he is of Moroccan background. Navon received an education at religious schools and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he studied Hebrew literature, Arabic, Islamic culture, and pedagogy. In 1951, he became political secretary to Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. He served as head of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's office from 1952 to 1963. In 1965, after resigning from the civil service, he was elected to the Knesset on the Rafi ticket. In 1972, he was elected chairman of the World Zionist Council. Navon served from 1978 to 1983 as the fifth president of Israel. He became deputy prime minister and minister of education and culture in the 1984 Government of National Unity and retained those posts in the government established in December 1988. He remained in the Knesset until 1992 and then left politics. He tended to combine liberal values and Israel Labor Party socialist ideology with dovish views on foreign policy issues. Navon often expressed his views publicly during his tenure as president and was a very popular figure in that position.