Eliahu Elath (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: אליהו אילת, born ''Ilya Menakhemovich Epstein''; 16 July 1903 – 21 June 1990)
was an Israeli diplomat and
Orientalist. In 1948 he became the first
Israeli ambassador to the United States, and between 1950 and 1959, he was
Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was the President of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
from 1962 to 1968.
Biography
Eliahu Eilat
immigrated
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
from
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
to
Palestine in 1924, and spent a decade in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
as a student and journalist.
Diplomatic career
From 1934 to 1945 he worked for the
Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...
, which evolved into the government of Israel (as described by V. Jacobson in 1934 in “Report on my trip to Eretz Israel and Syria”, 12 May 1933).
[ That same year he came to the United States as the agency's representative in Washington, D.C., and from 1948 to 1950 he served as the first Israeli ambassador to the United States. Following that appointment he served as the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1950 to 1959. He was the president of ]Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...
from 1962 to 1968, following Giulio Racah
Giulio (Yoel) Racah ( he, ג'וליו (יואל) רקח; February 9, 1909 – August 28, 1965) was an Italian–Israeli physicist and mathematician. He was Acting President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1961 to 1962.
The crater ...
and succeeded by Avraham Harman.[
During WWII, Elath visited ]Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
to meet with allied military leaders, including Major-General Orde Wingate
Major General Orde Charles Wingate, (26 February 1903 – 24 March 1944) was a senior British Army officer known for his creation of the Chindit deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory during the Burma Campaign of the Second Worl ...
. Elath was unaware that Wingate was a nudist and was said to have been "scarred for life by his experience of discussing Zionism for an hour and a half with a completely naked man".[Donaldson, p. 652.]
References
Further reading
* Donaldson, W. (2002) ''Brewer's Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics'', Cassell: London. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elath, Eliahu
1903 births
1990 deaths
Jews from the Russian Empire
Ukrainian Jews
Soviet Jews
Ambassadors of Israel to the United States
Ambassadors of Israel to the United Kingdom
Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty
Presidents of universities in Israel
Soviet emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Israeli people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
American University of Beirut alumni