Shimon Peres, Israel's minister of foreign affairs, says that even as a child he had the feeling that he was a grown up person.
“It was only at a very late age that there have been times when I felt like a child.”
Born Shimon Persky, in Vishniva, Poland, in 1923, he was close to his grandfather, a much respected rabbi, with whom he studied the Talmud.
“We had an extremely close relationship. He was a deeply religious man, but my parents were quite secular. I remember threatening to break the radio if they turned it on during Saturday.”
Later, as an Israeli, he too became a secular Jew.
Yitzchak Persky, Shimon's father, was a wealthy timber merchant. His mother, Sarah, was a librarian.
“My younger brother, Gershon, was interested in earthly pursuits, such as cutting down trees. I was more of a dreamer, always drawn to the world of words – poetry, prose and Dostoevsky. I was an avid reader of Russian and Yiddish.”
In his Jerusalem office, the right hand corner of the minister's desk is covered with books. They are carefully arranged like an orderly low-rise building, which perfectly suits a man who wakes at 5.30am and spends an hour before breakfast reading.
“Deep in my heart I wanted to become a poet or an architect,” he says.
As a boy in Vishniva, his world was one of cultured Jewish intellectuals where there was always talk of politics.
“In my own family, aunts and uncles belonged to the three or four political parties so I grew up hearing all points of view.”
He always attracted special attention from adults – an independent child who knew his own tastes and preferences.
Although the child Shimon Persky lived in Poland, his formative years were spent within a community who were living emotionally and mentally in Israel.
“We were all Zionists in our village, so the rhythms of our life came from Israel.”
People were always going to or coming from Palestine as it was then. In 1932 it was his father's turn to leave.
Two years later he sent word for his wife and sons to join him. His grandfather felt he was too old to start a new life, and of the immediate family, two uncles also stayed.
In 1934, aged 11, Shimon left Poland with his mother and brother. “I felt in my bones that I was sure to see my grandfather again, but I never did.”
Those who stayed behind were to perish in the Holocaust.
Many years later, in his official capacity as foreign minister, Peres returned to Poland. He went looking for the place where he was born.
“There was practically nothing left of the village. All the wooden buildings had been burnt down and replaced by houses made of stone. I didn't recognise the place, but I wanted to find our house. There had been a well in our courtyard and the taste of its fresh water was something I had never forgotten.”
Eventually, he found the well.
“There was nothing about the house or the surroundings that was familiar. Only the taste of the water hadn't changed.”
The tastes, smells, sounds and sights which greeted him on arrival in Israel are also etched clearly in his mind.
“I had come from a grey, snowy village in to a sunny hot land. I couldn't believe that the sky could be so blue. My father met us in Jaffa with some of his friends, where there was a tumultuous reception.
“For the first time in my life everything seemed strange and unfamiliar. Next to all those sun-tanned kids, I was so pale. It gave me an inferiority complex, and my Ashkenazi Hebrew didn't seem to connect with some of the words I could hear all around me. I felt like an outsider”.
Those feelings of not belonging quickly disappeared. After two years at the Geulah School in Tel Aviv, he continued his studies at Ben-Shemen, where his talents for leadership and organisation began to flourish.
Villages like Ben-Shemen had been established to train young people, most of them immigrants, for a life of agriculture and comradeship.
After joining a youth movement, Hanoar Haoved, he Hebraised his Polish name to Peres. It was, perhaps, a strange choice for a man whose political career has been committed to seeking peace and security in Israel.
In Hebrew, Peres is a kind of eagle, but politically Peres, elected to the Knesset in 1959, has always been much more of a dove.
In Israel, the child who had attracted the attention of adults became a teenager who attracted the attention of Berl Katznelson, one of the corner-stones of the Labour movement whose influence on Peres and others of his generation was immense.
“He had a deep attachment to literature, poetry and all spiritual things. In a way, Berl Katznelson took the place of my
grandfather.”
In his twenties, Peres came to the attention of Levi Eshkol and David Ben-Gurion, both, like him, destined to become future prime ministers.
With the creation of the state of Israel he became their right hand man. Later, as one of the most influential men in recent Israeli history, Peres has promoted bright young men to be his aides.
Over the years, experience has turned his interest towards what can be done rather than what can't be done.
“I'm an optimist. All my life I have never known what to do with pessimism.”
This interview first appeared in the Times in 1994
