Editing Shimon Peres (section)

==Early life==
Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski, on 2 August 1923,<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary: Shimon Peres, Israeli founding father |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27410614 |access-date=28 July 2020 |work=BBC News |date=28 September 2016 |archive-date=30 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830065124/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27410614 |url-status=live }}</ref> in Wiszniew, [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] (now [[Vishnyeva]], Belarus), to Yitzhak (1896–1962) and Sara (1905–1969, née Meltzer) Perski.<ref name=Nobel/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishinstitute.org.pl/pl/gminy/miasto/41.html |title=Location of Wiszniew on the map of the Second Polish Republic in the years 1921–1939 |publisher=jewishinstitute.org.pl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719024432/https://www.jewishinstitute.org.pl/pl/gminy/miasto/41.html |archive-date=19 July 2011 }}</ref> The family spoke [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] at home, and Peres learned Polish at school. He then learned to speak English and French.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=104|title=Knesset Member, Shimon Peres|publisher=Knesset|access-date=13 February 2008|archive-date=24 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624025614/https://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=104|url-status=live}}</ref> His father was a wealthy timber merchant, later branching out into other commodities; his mother was a librarian. Peres had a younger brother, Gershon.<ref name="achievement">{{cite web|url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/|title=Shimon Peres – Biography and Interview|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|date=2017|access-date=8 April 2019|archive-date=22 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322141034/https://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/|url-status=live}}</ref> He was related to the American film star [[Lauren Bacall]] (born Betty Joan Perske), and they were described as first cousins,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Peres-Not-such-a-bad-record-after-all|date=10 November 2005|title=Peres: Not such a bad record after all|access-date=13 August 2014|work=[[The Jerusalem Post]]|archive-date=20 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220102418/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Peres-Not-such-a-bad-record-after-all|url-status=live}}</ref> but Peres said, "In 1952 or 1953, I came to New York... Lauren Bacall called me, said that she wanted to meet, and we did. We sat and talked about where our families came from, and discovered that we were from the same family... but I'm not exactly sure what our relation is... It was she who later said that she was my cousin; I didn't say that".<ref name=haaretz>{{cite news| url=http://www.haaretz.com/life/movies-television/.premium-1.610399| title=Shimon Peres remembers 'very strong, very beautiful' relative Lauren Bacall| work=[[Haaretz]]| first=Nirit| last=Anderman| date=13 August 2014| location=[[Tel Aviv]]| access-date=2 August 2018| archive-date=7 October 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007143655/http://www.haaretz.com/life/movies-television/.premium-1.610399| url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Shimon Peres, standing third from right, with members of his family some time between 1920-1930 (D182-050).jpg|thumb|Shimon Peres (standing, third from right) with his family, {{Circa|1930}}]]
Peres told Rabbi [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]] that he had been born as a result of a blessing his parents had received from a [[Rebbe|chassidic rebbe]] and that he was proud of it.<ref>Joseph Telushkin. [[Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History|''Rebbe'']]. Page 132. HarperCollins, 2014.</ref> Peres's grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, a grandson of Rabbi [[Chaim Volozhin]], had a great impact on his life. In an interview, Peres said: "As a child, I grew up in my grandfather's home. … I was educated by him. … My grandfather taught me [[Talmud]]. It was not as easy as it sounds. My home was not an observant one. My parents were not Orthodox but I was [[Haredi]]. At one point, I heard my parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath and I smashed it."<ref name=IsraelTimes>{{cite web|url=http://www.israel-times.com/news/2003/08/shimon-peres-1994-nobel-peace-prize-1869|title=Shimon Peres, 1994 Nobel Peace Prize|author=Judy L. Beckham|work=Israel Times|date=2 August 2003}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> When he was a child, Peres was taken by his father to [[Radun, Belarus|Radun]] to receive a blessing from Rabbi [[Yisrael Meir Kagan]] (known as "the ''Chofetz Chaim''").<ref>{{cite news |last=Levi Julian |first=Hana |date=12 July 2007 |title=President Shimon Peres Agrees to Keep Shabbat--Once |url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124501 |publisher=Arutz Sheva |access-date=27 September 2016 |archive-date=1 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001031032/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124501 |url-status=live }}</ref> As a child, Peres would later say, "I did not dream of becoming president of Israel. My dream as a boy was to be a shepherd or a poet of stars."<ref name="auto5">[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/16/israel.comment It is true that we have erred, but a bright spring awaits] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001114656/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/16/israel.comment |date=1 October 2016 }} Shimon Peres, Monday 16 July 2007, ''The Guardian''</ref> He inherited his love of [[French literature]] from his maternal grandfather.<ref name="auto3"/>

In 1932, Peres's father immigrated to [[Mandatory Palestine]] and settled in [[Tel Aviv]]. The family followed him in 1934.<ref name="achievement" /> He attended [[Gymnasia Balfour|Balfour]] Elementary School and High School, and Geula Gymnasium (High School for Commerce) in [[Tel Aviv]]. At 15, he transferred to [[Ben Shemen Youth Village|Ben Shemen agricultural school]] and lived on [[Geva|Kibbutz Geva]] for several years.<ref name="achievement" /> Peres was one of the founders of [[Kibbutz]] [[Alumot]].

In 1941, he was elected Secretary of [[HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed]], a [[Labor Zionism|Labor Zionist]] youth movement, and in 1944 returned to Alumot, where he had an agricultural training and worked as a farmer and a shepherd.<ref>{{cite web|title=SHIMON PERES|url=http://www.peres-center.org/our_mission|access-date=29 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927214953/http://www.peres-center.org/our_mission|archive-date=27 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

At age 20, he was elected to the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed national secretariat, where he was only one of two [[Mapai]] party supporters, out of the 12 members. Three years later, he took over the movement and won a majority. The head of Mapai, [[David Ben-Gurion]], and [[Berl Katznelson]] began to take an interest in him, and appointed him to Mapai's secretariat.<ref name=seventy>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.il/he/departments/president_of_the_state_of_israel|title=בית הנשיא|website=GOV.IL|access-date=22 April 2019|archive-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815023449/https://www.gov.il/he/departments/president_of_the_state_of_israel|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1944, Peres led an illicit expedition into the [[Negev]], then a closed military zone requiring a permit to enter. The expedition, consisting of a group of teenagers, along with a [[Palmach]] scout, a zoologist, and an archaeologist, had been funded by Ben-Gurion and planned by Palmach head [[Yitzhak Sadeh]], as part of a plan for future Jewish settlement of the area so as to include it in the Jewish state.<ref name = NYTdeath /> The group was arrested by a [[Bedouin]] camel patrol led by a British officer, taken to [[Beersheba]] (then a small Arab town) and incarcerated in the local jail. All of the participants were sentenced to two weeks in prison, and as the leader, Peres was also heavily fined.<ref>Gilbert, Martin: ''Israel: A History'' (Pages 116–117)</ref> The expedition came across a nest of [[bearded vulture]]s, called ''peres'' in Hebrew, and from this Peres took his Hebrew name.<ref>Leshem, Yossi (28 September 2016) [https://www.birds.org.il/en/article/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A1-%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA Farewell Shimon Peres] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624210731/https://www.birds.org.il/en/article/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A1-%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA |date=24 June 2021 }}. birds.org.il</ref>

All of Peres's relatives who remained in Wiszniew in 1941 were murdered during the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145452.html|title=Peres to German MPs: Hunt down remaining Nazi war criminals|date=27 January 2010|work=[[Haaretz]]|access-date=27 January 2010|archive-date=13 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413064659/http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145452.html|url-status=live}}</ref> many of them (including Rabbi Meltzer) burned alive in the town's synagogue.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Speeches+by+Israeli+leaders/2010/Address_President_Peres_German_Bundestag_27-Jan-2010.htm |title=Address by Peres to German Bundestag |publisher=Mfa.gov.il |date=27 January 2010 |access-date=12 June 2014 |archive-date=12 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012161809/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Speeches+by+Israeli+leaders/2010/Address_President_Peres_German_Bundestag_27-Jan-2010.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1945, Peres married [[Sonia Peres|Sonya Gelman]], who preferred to remain outside the public eye. They had three children.<ref name="Ynet2007">{{cite news|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3404483,00.html|title=Sonia Peres regains consciousness|access-date=25 May 2007|newspaper=[[Ynetnews]]|date=25 May 2007|last1=Meranda|first1=Amnon|archive-date=7 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107104433/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3404483,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1946, Peres and [[Moshe Dayan]] were chosen as the two youth delegates in the Mapai delegation to the Zionist Congress in [[Basel]].<ref name=seventy/>

In 1947, Peres joined the [[Haganah]], the predecessor of the [[Israel Defense Forces]]. [[David Ben-Gurion]] made him responsible for personnel and arms purchases; he was appointed to head the naval service when Israel received independence in 1948.<ref name = NYTdeath />

Peres was director of the Defense Ministry's delegation in the United States in the early 1950s. While in the U.S. he studied [[English language|English]], [[economics]], and [[philosophy]] at [[The New School]] and [[New York University]], and completed a four-month advanced [[management]] course at [[Harvard University]].<ref name="achievement"/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bar-Zohar|first=Michael|url=http://archive.org/details/shimonperesbiogr00barz|title=Shimon Peres : the biography|date=2007|publisher=New York : Random House|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-4000-6292-8|pages=99}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Man in the News: Israeli Model of Endurance; Shimon Peres |work=The New York Times |date=6 August 1984 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/06/world/man-in-the-news-israeli-model-of-endurance-shimon-peres.html |access-date=12 February 2017 |archive-date=19 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419000728/http://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/06/world/man-in-the-news-israeli-model-of-endurance-shimon-peres.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bar-Zohar |first=Michael |date=2007 |title=Shimon Peres: The Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BGUwAQAAIAAJ&q=%22shimon+peres%22+%22harvard%22 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Random House |pages=75–76 |isbn=978-1-40-006292-8 |access-date=15 March 2015 |archive-date=1 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501071842/https://books.google.com/books?id=BGUwAQAAIAAJ&q=%22shimon+peres%22+%22harvard%22 |url-status=live }}</ref>