Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician who served as the ninth President of Israel, the Prime Minister of Israel, and the Interim Prime Minister. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years.
As per a database released by MyHeritage that includes 67,000 citizenship requests from the British mandate period between the years 1937 and 1947, among those who requested citizenship were people who went on to become key figures in the young State of Israel- including former Israeli President Shimon Peres, who was born Szymon Perski. Peres’ request includes documents in which he declared that he is interested in agricultural work and wants to change his name to Shimon.
Many of the requests were filed by Jews who managed to escape Europe shortly before the Holocaust and survivors who wanted to move to Israel after the collapse of the Nazi regime. Other requests were filed by Jewish people from Arab countries who wanted to come to the holy land to fulfill the Zionist dream.
Each request includes two recommendation letters from citizens who declared their support for the petitioner. Among those who submitted recommendations for future citizens were former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, former Minister Shlomo Hillel and author Yehuda Burla.