Famous Like Me > Writer > E > Abba Eban
Profile of Abba Eban
on Famous Like Me |
| |
| Name: |
Abba Eban |
|
| |
|
| Also Know As: |
|
| |
|
| Date of Birth: |
2nd February 1915 |
| |
|
| Place of Birth: |
Cape Town, Union of South Africa (now South Africa) |
| |
|
| Profession: |
Writer |
| |
|
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Abba Eban (××‘× ×בן) (February 2, 1915 - November 17, 2002) was an Israeli diplomat and politician.
Born Aubrey Solomon Eban in Cape Town, South Africa, Eban moved to England at an early age. He was educated at St Olave's Grammar School before becoming an honors-winning student at Cambridge University, and taught Arabic there as a Fellow of Pembroke College after graduating, from 1938-1940. He served with the British Army in World War II, rising to the rank of major. He served as a liaison officer for the Allies to the Jewish Yishuv of Palestine, and stayed on there after the war.
Having decided to remain in Israel, Eban changed his name to the more Hebrew-sounding Abba (however it was seldom used informally). He was Israel's first representative to the United Nations, where he was successful in attaining UN approval for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab segments - Resolution 181. Eban spent a decade at the United Nations, and also served as his country's ambassador to the United States at the same time. He was renowned for his oratorical skills. In the words of Henry Kissinger,
"I have never encountered anyone who matched his command of the English language. Sentences poured forth in mellifluous constructions complicated enough to test the listener’s intelligence and simultaneously leave him transfixed by the speaker’s virtuosity."
His polished presentation, grasp of history, and powerful speaches gave him authority in a United Nations that was generally skeptical of Israel or even hostile to it. He was fluent in ten languages. In 1952, Eban was elected Vice President of the UN General Assembly.
Eban left the United States in 1959 and returned to Israel, where he was elected to the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as a member of the Mapai party. He served under David Ben-Gurion as Minister of Education and Culture from 1960 to 1963, then as deputy to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol until 1966. Through this entire period (1959-1966), he also served as president of the Weizmann Institute at Rehovot.
From 1966 to 1974, Eban served as Israel's foreign minister, defending the country in the Six-Day War. Nonetheless, he was a strong supporter of returning the territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace. He played an important part in the shaping of UN Security Council Resolution 242 in 1967 (as well as resolution 338 in 1973). Eban was at times criticized for not voicing his opinions in Israel's internal debate.
In 1988, after three decades in the Knesset, he lost his seat over internal splits in the Israeli Labour Party. He devoted the rest of his life to writing and teaching, including serving as a visiting academic at Princeton University and Columbia University. He also narrated television documentaries including Heritage:Civilization and the Jews (PBS - 1984), for which he was host, Israel, A Nation Is Born (1992), and On the Brink of Peace (PBS - 1997).
In 2001, Eban received the Israel Prize, his country's highest honor.
Eban's cousin, Oliver Sacks is a famous neurologist and author.
Eban was buried in Kfar Shmaryahu, north of Tel Aviv.
Bibliography
- Abba Eban (1957): Voice of Israel
- Abba Eban (1959): The tide of nationalism (Herbert Samuel lecture)
- Abba Eban (1968): My People - The Story Of The Jews ISBN 0874412943
- Abba Eban (1972): My Country: The Story Of Modern Israel ISBN 0394463145
- Abba Eban (1977): Abba Eban: An Autobiography ISBN 0394493028
- Abba Eban (1983): The New Diplomacy: International Affairs in the Modern Age ISBN 0394502833
- Abba Eban (1984): Heritage: Civilization and the Jews ISBN 0671441035
- Abba Eban (1987): Israel: The First Forty Years ISBN 0684189046 (USA) ISBN 0500541272 (UK)
- Abba Eban (1992): Personal Witness, Israel through My Eyes ISBN 0399135898
External link
Sources
- The Commentator; "In Memoriam"; Volume 67, Issue 5; November 25, 2002
- Biography at "The Department for Jewish Zionist Education," http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/people/BIOS/eban.html
This content from
Wikipedia is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article Abba Eban
|
