Ehud Avriel

Born in Vienna in Austria-Hungary, Avriel was educated at a local gymnasium. He was a member of the Blue-White movement, and between 1938 and 1940 worked for the Youth Aliyah office in occupied Vienna.

He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1940 and settled in kibbutz Neot Mordechai. He joined the Haganah, and was involved in the Rescue Committee assisting Jews flee Europe. He spent some years in Turkey as well for that purpose. After the war ended he helped illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine. In 1946, he was sent to Czechoslovakia to purchase arms for the Jewish community. On 28 July 1948 he became envoy to Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Together with Israeli tycoon Efraim Ilin, Avriel negotiated an arms deal with Czechoslovakia.[1] Two years later he was moved to Romania where he remained, as head of the legation, until late March 1951, returning to Israel in April.

In 1955, he was elected to the Knesset on the Mapai list. However, he resigned on 31 July 1957, and was appointed ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Congo, a position he held until 1960. Between 1961 and 1965, he served as deputy director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before serving as ambassador to Italy between 1965 and 1968. From 1966 until 1968, while based in Rome, he was also ambassador to Malta.[2] He later worked as a consul general in Chicago in 1974, and an ambassador for Special Affairs between 1977 and 1979.[3]

He died of a heart attack on 27 August 1980 while giving a lecture on the diaspora of American Jews in Jerusalem, and was buried in the cemetery of Neot Mordechai.[4]

• Ehud Avriel on the Knesset website