Ephraim Evron, the 57-year-old director general of the Foreign Ministry who has been named to succeed Simcha Dinitz as Ambassador to the United States Dec. 15, is no stranger to Washington.
In fact, there is a story, probably apocryphal, that when Evron was appointed Ambassador to Canada in 1968 after a short time as the envoy to Sweden, it was because the then U.S. President, Lyndon B. Johnson, had sent Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol, a note saying, “I miss him (Evron) and I would like to have him closer to me.”
Evron was a Minister in the Israeli Embassy in Washington from 1965 until going to Sweden. But he had gotten to know Johnson and other Americans even earlier when he served as the Histadrut’s representative in the U.S. and as a second secretary in the Israeli Embassy in 1953. He also served as Minister in the Israeli Embassy in London from 1961 to 1965. Before being named to his present post in 1977, Evron was deputy director general in charge of North American affairs for six years.
Born in Haifa, Evron attended Hebrew University. He served in the British Army from 1941 to 1946 and with the Haganah intelligence in 1948. He was wounded in the battle of Jerusalem in 1948.
Evron entered the Foreign Service in 1949 and became political secretary to Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. He was Premier David Ben Gurion’s political secretary from 1951 to 1953 and in 1954-55 was director of the office of Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon. Short and thin, Evron is known for developing personal relations and is considered especially effective in small groups.
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