PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK SHAMIR:
A FOUNDING FATHER OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL

Prime Minister of Israel 1983-4 and 1986-92; served longer in this office than any of his predecessors except David Ben Gurion.

Foreign Minister 1980-6.

Speaker of the Knesset 1977- 80.

Member of the Knesset 1972- 1996, re-elected continuously through six General Elections.

Graduated Hebrew Secondary School, Bialystok. Joined Betar Zionist Youth Movement, interrupted Law studies at Warsaw in order to emigrate in 1933 to Eretz Israel (then British Mandatory Palestine), and enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Underground Freedom Fighter for the independence of Israel; joined the Irgun Zvai Leumi, later a member and principal operational commander of the Lechi ("Freedom Fighters of Israel") triumvirate leadership.

Businessman and Industrial Manager; later, senior Secret Service official in the Mossad.

Chronology:

Mr. Shamir's parents and the rest of his family perished in the Holocaust. He is married to Shulamith, an olah from Bulgaria, for over 50 years. The couple have two children, and five grandchildren. He speaks Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French, Polish and some Russian.


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