Zvi Yanai

Zvi Yanai (Hebrew: צבי ינאי ) (June 9, 1935 - December 16, 2013) was an Israeli civil servant, publicist and writer.^[1]

Biography

Sandor Toth (later Zvi Yanai) was born in Pescara, Italy. His father was a baritone singer from Budapest and his mother was a prima ballerina from Gratz, Austria. They were not married. His father was Christian and his mother was Jewish. He was raised as a Protestant but converted to Catholicism in 1942 and studied for the priesthood. Science, Technology and Space Minister Ya’akov Peri expressed his sorrow on Monday over the death of onetime ministry director-general, publicist and philosopher Zvi Yanai at the age of 78.

He edited the influential Hebrew-language journal Mahshavot (Thoughts) and was a consultant and lecturer in the field of science, culture and philosophy, even though he was largely self-taught.

Born in Italy, as Sandro Toth, to a Jewish ballerina from Austria and a Christian baritone singer from Hungary, Yanai was raised as a Protestant but converted to Catholicism and studied to be a priest at the age of eight.

He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine at the age of 10 and was sent to a kibbutz. He later served in the Israel Defense Force and worked at IBM-Israel for many years.

Yanai became a self-described atheist, but nevertheless felt a strong connection to Jewish history and thought.

“Besides Zvi being a rare philosopher and author with an unusual life story, he was director-general of the ministry between 1973 and 1997.

Some of its current programs continue to function due to his initiatives. His then-innovative ideas to bring the general public closer to science will continue to be the basis for many of our activities in the future,” Peri said.

Yanai was a “pioneer who opened up the world of science to the layman. His work can still be identified in popular culture today,” he concluded.

^[2]

Yanai immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1945 at the age of ten. He was sent to Kibbutz Ramat David.^[3] He served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Force. He began to work for IBM in 1970.

Yanai was head of Israel's Ministry of Science and editor of the periodical Mahshavot (Thoughts).^[4]

References