Shevah Weiss

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Shevah Weiss
Alignment
1991–1999Labor Party
Diplomatic roles
2001–2003Ambassador to Poland
Personal details
Born
Szeivah Weiss

(1935-07-05)5 July 1935
Borysław, Poland
Died3 February 2023(2023-02-03) (aged 87)
Tel Aviv, Israel
SpouseEster Weiss
Children2
Alma materHebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Warsaw
SignatureSignature "S. Weiss"

Shevah Weiss (

Knesset Speaker under Yitzhak Rabin. He was Israel's ambassador to Poland and chairman of Yad Vashem.[1]

Biography

Shevah Weiss was born in

Holocaust, his father built a hiding place for the family behind the wall of their store. He built bunk beds, one on top of the other, up to the ceiling. Weiss lived in this tiny space with his parents, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin and neighbor. Later they lived in the basement of a children’s orphanage. Neighbors provided them with food and water. Weiss recalls: "My father cooked a soup consisting of one potato and water for our whole group. But in the end, we were reduced to chewing book covers made of genuine leather."[2] Weiss later expressed his gratitude to the families who saved him, whom he described as “amazing people, my heroes…[who] will always be in my heart”.[3]

Weiss

PhD
.

Weiss was married to Esther, with whom he had two children. Dr. Esther Weiss died of cancer in 2005.[4]

Academic career

In 1975, Weiss he became a professor at the University of Haifa.

Political, civic and diplomatic career

Weiss in 2002, as Israeli ambassador to Poland

Weiss served as a member of the board of the Haifa municipality between 1969 and 1981, when he was elected to the

1999 elections
.

On November 4, 1995, Weiss was on stage with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres at the peace rally in Tel Aviv where Rabin was assassinated.[5]

In 2000 he became a president of the Yad Vashem Council. From 2001 to 2003, he served as an Israeli ambassador in Poland. On 4 January 2004, for his contribution to the cooperation between Poland and Israel, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski awarded him the Grand Cross (1st class) of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Weiss spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, Russian and English. He died on 3 February 2023 in Tel Aviv,[6] at the age of 87.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Shevah Weiss, former Knesset speaker, Holocaust survivor dies at 87
  2. ^ The man who survived the Holocaust by living behind a wall
  3. ^ Polish family who saved future Israeli ambassador from Holocaust found seven decades later
  4. ^ Shevah Weiss, Former Knesset Speaker and Israel's Ambassador to Poland, Dies at 87, Haaretz
  5. ^ Knesset speaker, ambassador to Poland Shevah Weiss dies at 87
  6. ^ "Zmarł prof. Szewach Weiss – Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Studiów Międzynarodowych" (in Polish). 4 February 2023. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  7. ^ "שבח וייס, יו"ר הכנסת ושגריר ישראל בפולין לשעבר, מת בגיל 87". Haaretz. 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.

External links