Eban, Abba

(formerly Aubrey)

(1915-2002)

   Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to Lithuanian-Jewish parents, he grew up in Great Britain. While a student of Middle Eastern languages and classics at Cambridge University, he founded the University Labour Society, was president of the Students' Union, and was active in debating and Zionist circles. During World War II, Eban served as a major to the British minister of state in Cairo and then as an intelligence officer in Jerusalem. In 1946, he became the political information officer in London for the Jewish Agency and, the following year, the liaison officer for the Jewish Agency with the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). In May 1948, he became Israel's permanent delegate to the United Nations. From 1950 to 1959, he served as both Israel's ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations.

   In 1959, Eban was elected to the Knesset on the Mapai list. He served as minister of education and culture from 1960 to 1963 and was deputy prime minister from 1964 to 1965. He also served as president of the Weizmann Institute of Science at Rehovot from 1959 to 1966. In 1966, Eban became minister of foreign affairs, a position that he held until 1974. He served as chairman of the Knesset Committee for Security and Foreign Affairs from 1984 to 1988. In 1988, the Israel Labor Party dropped him from its list of candidates for the Knesset election. After retiring from party politics, he continued to be a keen observer of and prolific commentator about security and foreign policy and Israel's place in the international system.