Celebrating famous Jews from Ukraine: Ephraim Katzir

A born in Kyiv talented biophysicist scientist who made a significant contribution to the study and use of enzymes, Ephraim Katchalski was invited to run for President by Golda Meir, who was serving as the Prime Minister of Israel in the early 1970s.

To participate in the presidential election, Ephraim Katchalski hebraicized his surname and became Katzir. Under the name Ephraim Katzir, he went down in the history books as the fourth president of the State of Israel.

Ephraim Katzir accepted the resignation of the Kyivan Golda Meir and swore in the first government of Yitzhak Rabin, another Jew with the Ukrainian roots. Already in the fourth month after his inauguration, the Yom Kippur War of 1973 began. And a year before the end of his powers, Katzir was also destined to become a witness and participant in the normalization of relations with Egypt.

The history of Israel is inextricably linked with Ukraine. Some Ukrainian Jews succeeded others in the senior posts, and each of them contributed to the formation of the Israel that we see now.

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