Yitzhak Ben-Zvi — president with roots in the Russian Empire
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was Israel's second President (1952-1963) — the longest-serving president in Israeli history. Born in Poltava (Russian Empire, now Ukraine), he emigrated to Ottoman Palestine as a young Zionist activist and was one of the central figures in building the institutions of the Jewish state.
Tracing the roots — Poltava (Ukr)
Born in Poltava (Russian Empire) in 1884, Ben-Zvi was shaped by the Russian Zionist movement and the pogroms that drove Jews to seek a homeland. He co-founded the Jewish Labour movement in Palestine with David Ben-Gurion, and his 11-year presidency — the longest in Israeli history — was marked by his scholarly study of Jewish communities worldwide.
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Poltava (Ukr). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.