Shimon Peres

He married Sonya Gelman in May 1945. She chose to keep away from public eye.

On January 20, 2011, she succumbed to heart failure in her home in Tel Aviv.

His daughter Dr. Tsvia ("Tsiki") Valdan and two sons Yoni Peres and Nehemia ("Chemi") Peres are all accomplished personalities in their respective fields.

He was born on August 2, 1923, as Szymon Perski in Wiszniew, Poland in the family of Yitzhak Perski and Sara Perski. His father was an affluent timber merchant and his mother worked as a librarian.

He was raised at the house of his grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer who educated him and taught him Talmud. His grandfather had a great influence in his early life.

His father moved to Tel Aviv in 1932 and the family joined his father in 1934. In Tel Aviv he studied in ‘Balfour Elementary School’ and ‘Balfour High School’ and later at ‘Geula Gymnasium’. Thereafter, he attended Ben Shemen agricultural school.

For many years he stayed in Kibbutz Geva. He was a co-founder of Kibbutz Alumot.

In 1941 he became the Secretary of a ‘Labor Zionist’ youth movement called the ‘Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed’.

He became the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Defense in 1952 and in 1953 he was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Defense by the then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. He was the youngest person to serve in the post and held it till 1959. His responsibilities included initiating strategic alliances and purchase of arms.

Through his negotiation Israel successfully signed up a tri-national agreement with the UK and France, obtained advanced Dassault Mirage III French jet fighter and set up the ‘Dimona’ nuclear reactor.

Since 1954 he participated in planning of the 1956 Suez War with the UK and France in the capacity of Director-General of the Ministry of Defense of Israel and visited Paris a few times in this pursuit.

When Israel resolved to go to war against Egypt by 1956, France evolved as the closest partner of Israel in the Middle East. The UK and France strategized with Israel, in its war against Egypt, to achieve their objective of taking control of the Suez Canal through a pre-planned mid-war intervention thus placing it under Anglo-French management. Their plan however failed following severe adverse response from USSR and the US.

In 1959 he was elected as a member of the Knesset representing ‘Mapai’ party and became the Deputy Defense Minister, a position he held till 1965.

In 1994, he received the ‘Nobel Peace Prize’ jointly with Yāsir ʿArafāt and Yitzhak Rabin.

As ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs’, he initiated and negotiated a peace accord with the then chairman of the ‘Palestine Liberation Organisation’, Yāsir ʿArafāt that resulted in signing of the ‘Declaration of Principles’ in September 1993.