Levi Eshkol — prime minister with roots in the Russian Empire
Levi Eshkol was Israel's third Prime Minister (1963-1969), serving during one of the country's most consequential periods — the Six-Day War of 1967. Born in Ukraine, he was a founding Zionist who helped build the kibbutz movement and Israel's water infrastructure before rising to lead the state.
Tracing the roots — Orativ (Ukraine)
Born Levi Shkolnik in Orativ, Kiev Governorate (Russian Empire, now Ukraine) in 1895, Eshkol emigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1914 as a young Zionist pioneer. His entire biography — from Ukrainian shtetl to Israeli Prime Minister — traces the arc of the Russian-Jewish Zionist project that created the State of Israel.
Led Israel during the Six-Day War.
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Orativ (Ukraine). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.