President Yitzhak Navon

Yitzhak Navon, born in Jerusalem in 1921 to a Sephardi family rooted in the city for centuries, was the first president born in the Land of Israel and the first of Sephardi descent. He had been David Ben-Gurion's political secretary from 1952 to 1963, a Labour member of the Knesset, and author of the play Bustan Sephardi (1970), a portrait of Jerusalem's Ladino-speaking community. He became the fifth president on 29 May 1978.

In October 1980 he became the first Israeli head of state to make a state visit to an Arab country, Egypt, where he spoke to the public in Arabic. After the Sabra and Shatila massacre in September 1982, during the Lebanon War, he publicly called for an independent state commission of inquiry, which the government set up as the Kahan Commission. He served one term, ending in May 1983, then returned to politics as Minister of Education and Deputy Prime Minister from 1984 to 1990. He died in 2015.