Shevah Weiss 11th Speaker of the Kneset

Shevah Weiss (From Wikipedia)

Shevah Weiss (Hebrew: שבח וייס‎, Polish: Szejwach Weiss), is an Israeli political scientist and former politician. Weiss was born on July 5, 1935 in Borysław, Poland (now in Ukraine) in Polish Jewish family to Gienia and Meir Wolf Weiss. As a Holocaust survivor, he migrated to Palestine in 1947. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a BA in International Relations in 1961, before doing an MA in political Science and contemporary Jewish studies and then a PhD. In 1975 he became a professor at the University of Haifa.

He served as a member of the board of the Haifa municipality between 1969 and 1981, when he was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Alignment. Between 1988 and 1992, he served as a Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, and between 1992 and 1996 as Speaker. He lost his seat in the 1999 elections.

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

In 2009, he told the Jerusalem Post that he was disappointed by Pope Benedict XVI's speech at Yad Vashem.

Weiss speaks Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, Russian and English.

Education

- B.A., International Relations and Political Science (1959); M.A., Political Science and Contemporary Jewish Studies (1961); Ph.D., Political Philosophy (1969), Hebrew University of Jerusalem

- Graduate, Law Faculty, Tel Aviv University (1965)

- Graduate, International Seminar, Brookings Institute, Washington (1980)

- Professor of Political Science at Haifa University since 1975

Military Service

Sergeant, Engineering Corps; Assistant to Command Education Officer

Knesset Terms

Knesset 10 20.7.1981 - 13.8.1984

Knesset 11 13.8.1984 - 21.11.1988

Knesset 12 21.11.1988 - 13.7.1992

Knesset 13 13.7.1992 - 17.6.1996

Knesset 14 17.6.1996 - 7.6.1999

Knesset Presidium

Knesset 12 Deputy Speaker of the Knesset

Knesset 13 Speaker of the Knesset

Knesset 14 Deputy Speaker of the Knesset

Publications

16 books for children and youth

34 books on political science, local government, and the political sociology of Israel

Three field studies on local government

Four books on the work of the Knesset

Two books on the Holocaust

28 professional articles in Israeli and foreign journals on political science

Many articles, mostly political journalism, in the Israeli and foreign daily press

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shevah_Weiss

http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=49

http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1303592A/Shevah_Weiss