Former Israeli President Yitzhak Navon passes away

He was a top aide to the Jewish country’s founding father David Ben-Gurion.

This March 11, 1979 file photo shows the then President of Israel, Yitzhak Navon (right), talking to his U.S. counterpart Jimmy Carter during a meeting in Jerusalem. Mr. Navon, who served as Israel's fifth President, died on Saturday, his family said. He was 94.

Yitzhak Navon, who served as Israel’s fifth President, has died. He was 94.

Mr. Navon was a top aide to Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion. Later he embarked on a political career in the Labour Party. He served as President between 1978 and 1983 and had a lengthy term as Education Minister. He quit politics in 1992 and became a successful author and playwright.

Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog remembered Mr. Navon as a member of Israel’s founding generation who “built our national home with their own hands.”

“Moderating, embracing voice”

Centrist Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid called him a “moderating, embracing, respecting voice that is so missing these days.”

Mr. Navon was born in Jerusalem to a Sephardi family descended from Spanish Jews expelled in the inquisition of 1492.