Moshe Sharett (1894-1965)

Moshe Sharett (born Moshe Shertok on 15 October 1894, died 7 July 1965) was the second Prime Minister of Israel (1953-1955), serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurion's two terms.

Early life

Born in Kherson, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, Moshe Sharett emigrated to Palestine in 1906. In 1910 his family moved to Jaffa, and they became one of the founding families of Tel Aviv. He went off to Istanbul to study law, but his time there was cut short because of his service in the Turkish army as an interpreter.

After the War

After the war he worked as an Arab affairs and land purchase agent for the Palestine Jewish Community's Representative Council. He also became a member of Ahdut Ha'Avoda and later of Mapai. In 1922 he went to the London School of Economics, and while there he actively edited the "Workers of Zion". He then edited the Davar newspaper from 1925 until 1931. In 1931, after returning to Palestine, he became the secretary of the Jewish Agency's political department. In 1933 he became the head of the Jewish Agency, and he held that position until the formation on Israel.

Declaration of Israel

Sharett was one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1949, and he also served as Israel's first Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this role he established diplomatic relations with dozens of nations, and got Israel into the UN. He held this role until 1956.
In 1954 David Ben-Gurion retired from politics, and Sharett was elected to take his place. During his time as prime minister the Palestinian-Israeli conflict intensified. David Ben-Gurion ran to become prime minister in 1955, and he replaced Sharett.

Retirement

After stepping down as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharett retired. During his retirement he became chairman of Am Oved publishing house, Chairman of Beit Berl College, and Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency. He died in 1965 and was buried in Tel Aviv's Trumpeldor Cemetery.

Legacy

In his book "Perfidy", Ben Hecht claimed that Sharett purposely prevented Joel Brand, a member of the Jewish Agency's rescue commission, from saving an estimated 1,000,000 Hungarian Jews from certain annihilation. Hecht's claims, however, are disputed. Hecht himself was a supporter of the Irgun and of the Israeli Revisionists, and a vocal opponent of Weitzmann, Sharett and Ben-Gurion, and had therefore some political motivation in publishing these claims. The accuracy of the claims is a matter of continued debate.

Since 1987, Sharett has appeared on the 20 NIS bills. The bill first featured Sharett, with the names of his books in small print, and with a small image of him presenting the Israeli flag to the United Nations in 1949. On the back of the bill, there was an image of the Herzliya Hebrew High School, from which he graduated. In 1998 the bill went through a graphic revision, the list of Sharett's books on the front side was replaced by part of Sharet's 1949 speech in the UN. The back side now features an image of Jewish Brigade volunteers, part of a speech by Sharett on the radio after visiting the Brigade in Italy, and the list of his books in small print.