Gideon Rafael
Gideon Rafael (March 5, 1913 – February 10, 1999) was
an Israeli diplomat and one of the founders of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.[1]
Gideon Ruffer (later Rafael) was born as Georg Ruffer in Berlin, Germany, to a Jewish family, the son of a prosperous furrier. He studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1933, when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, he escaped to France, where he studied at an agricultural school in Toulouse, and in 1934, he made aliyah to Palestine, where he was one of the founders of kibbutz HaZore'a.
Rafael joined the Haganah, and was a commander during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. He was later sent to Europe on missions to help illegally smuggle European Jews into Palestine, in defiance of British immigration restrictions.
During World War II, he enlisted in the British Army, and fought in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. After he was discharged
in 1943, he began working for the Jewish Agency. He worked in intelligence, as a liaison with Allied forces and Jewish populations in Europe.
In 1945, he assisted in preparing the Jewish case for the Nuremberg Trials.
In 1947, he became a member of the Jewish Agency's delegation to the United Nations. Upon Israeli independence in 1948, he was one of three founding members of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, along with Moshe Sharett, Israel's first Foreign Minister, and a secretary. Rafael served as an aide to Sharett. In May 1948, he was assigned to draw up a list of world capitals to be officially informed of Israel's establishment. He was then sent to New York as an aide to Abba Eban, Israel's first representative and spokesman at the United Nations.[4] In 1953, he returned to Israel, and was in charge of United Nations and Middle Eastern affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry until 1957.
Israeli delegation to the UN in 1950.
From left to right: Arthur Lourie, consul general; Dr. J. Robinson, counselor; Abba Eban, envoy extraordinary; Dr. Avraham Katznelson, Minister of Health; Gideon Rafael, Foreign Affairs.
In 1967, he became Israeli ambassador to the UN, and was serving in this position during the Six-Day War. In 1968, he returned to Israel, and was Director-General of the Foreign Ministry until 1972.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Rafael