On May 24, 1973, Israeli eyes turned to the platform in front of the Knesset, the country's parliament, for the swearing-in of its new president. Standing together were Speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu and outgoing president Zalman Shazar, called upon by Prime Minister Golda Meir to hand over the reins of the presidency to Ephraim Katzir, a London-born, American-educated scientist, one of the best minds in Israel.
Striving for Peace: In Memory of President Ephraim Katzir
On May 24, 1973, Israeli eyes turned to the platform in front of the Knesset, the country’s parliament, for the swearing-in of its new president. Standing together were Speaker Yisrael Yeshayahu and outgoing president Zalman Shazar, called upon by Prime Minister Golda Meir to hand over the reins of the presidency to Ephraim Katzir, a London-born, American-educated scientist, one of the best minds in Israel.
Just three months before, Shazar – born Shneur Zalman Rubashov – had dropped a bombshell, announcing at a historic Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in the Old City, the famed Tzemach Tzedek shul, that he would not seek another term as president.
The suggestion had come from the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, who had guided Shazar throughout his career.
“I was called up to the Torah in the Tzemach Tzedek,” Shazar wrote that day to the Rebbe. “I mentioned that I am leaving office and it brought with it a wave of displeasure, however, [the people expressing this] are not the ones who decide.”
At the Knesset, making a speech in honor of his successor, Shazar assumed the poetic tone he had become famous for: “There is no blessing in my heart for our land other than the blessing of peace in all the facets of our life,” he said. “Peace between all the nations and races in our land, peace between our land and our neighbors, and peace between all the various segments of our nation.”
Turning to Katzir, the outgoing president invoked biblical language: “Arise, arise chosen of the nation and blessed by G‑d in a good and auspicious time. You should merit seeing with your very eyes … peace and righteousness reign in the land of our forefathers.”
But the fourth president’s term was fraught with difficult days. In the ensuing months and years, a series of governments fell, political scandals rocked the public and the security situation deteriorated to its lowest depths. The Yom Kippur War came at the end of the summer in 1973, terrorists took over hotels in Tel Aviv, bombs exploded in Jerusalem’s streets. At the same time, the nation’s fabric seemed torn between Israel’s various factions, who staged demonstrations bringing out tens of thousands of people.
