
His Excellency Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin
Tenth President of the State of Israel, Speaker of the 16th and the 18th Knesset, and former Government Minister. Member of the 12th and the 14th - 19th Knessets, Member of the Jerusalem City Council 1978-1988.
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The tenth president of the State of Israel was born in 1939 in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem, on the border between the ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Sha'arei Hessed and the more bohemian society of secular Jerusalem. His father, the oriental scholar, Professor Yosef Yoel Rivlin, translated the Quran from Arabic to Hebrew, and passed on to his son a love for the Arabic language. His mother, Rachel Rivlin, a nurse by profession, used to call him Ruve'le, which later became Ruvi, a nickname destined to accompany him throughout his life.
President Rivlin was nine years old when the State of Israel was established. The period following the declaration of the new State and the Arab blockade of Jerusalem are deeply engraved in his memory. As a boy, he grew up in the divided city of Jerusalem and today he is still a man of opposites that complement each other; a member of the Israeli Scouts Movement who was raised in a home loyal to Beitar; a vegetarian for ideological reasons close to thirty years and a loyal supporter of the Beitar Jerusalem football club.
The President likes to begin each morning with a three kilometer walk in the Jerusalem Forest, to "breath in the fresh air of Jerusalem and to order my thoughts". The Brazilian Pele is the football player he most admires, and his favorite dish is eggplant in spicy tomato sauce. His favorite books are Moshe Shamir's The King of Flesh and Blood and A. B. Yehoshua's A Journey to the End of the Millennium, which he rereads every seven years. Jabotinsky, the thinker, writer, poet and statesman, is his source of inspiration. In light of Rivlin's consistent positions, that combine a commitment to Eretz Yisrael, together with a profound and uncompromising liberalism, some call him The Last Jabotinsky.
During his public career, the President served as a member of the Jerusalem City Council, making a significant contribution to strengthening sports and the cultural life of the city. Following a decade on the City Council he was elected to the Knesset where he served for six parliamentary terms, including as a Government Minister and as Speaker of the 16th and 18th Knessets. Throughout his parliamentary career, President Rivlin insisted on the independence of the Knesset vis-à-vis the Executive and the Judicial Branches, and gained broad public recognition for his consistent defence of democracy and his efforts to ensure the rights of Israel's minorities.
On 10th June 2014, Rivlin was elected President of the State of Israel.