The Contribution of Israel’s Female Diplomats and “Significant Others” for Israel Advocacy and Israel–Diaspora Relations: The Early Years

The paper focuses on Israel’s female diplomatic staff, spouses, and ‘significant others’ whose interactions with American Jewish leaders and organizations made an indelible and vital contribution to pro-Israel advocacy and strengthening the State of Israel in its formative years. Their impact is much greater and profound than the discourse and literature on Israel-American Jewish and Israel-US relations, suggests and remains terra incognita (notwithstanding worthy attention to Golda Meir and Hadassah Women`s Organization of America). The paper accounts for and evaluates the contributions of the above in cultivating and nurturing ties not only with Jewish women’s organizations but also in providing behind the scenes, a bridge at the UN to women’s organizations and to countries among which, which had no diplomatic relations with Israel. The paper focuses on the contributions of Esther Herlitz, Tamar Eshel, Zena Harman, Mina Ben Zvi, Ora Goitein, Suzy Eban, and Zehava Elath. The paper is based on primary sources from archives, private collections and interviews I have conducted in Israel and the US. The paper elucidates on the importance Israel placed on reaching out to women’s organizations in the US is attested by the fact that of the only three accredited embassy attaches for Women’s Affairs in Washington D.C. in the 1950s and 1960s, one was at the Israeli embassy.