Martin Fox, president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, announced that Hugh Orgel has been appointed the JTA’s Tel Aviv correspondent. Orgel replaces Yitzhak Shargil who died Nov. 30 at the age of 53 of a massive heart attack. Shargil, who joined the JTA in the mid-1950s, was also an editor of Yediot Achronot.
Orgel, 66, was born in London and immigrated to Palestine in 1938. He was one of the founding members of Habonim in England. After coming to Palestine he served in the Palestinian unit of the British army in Egypt and Italy and held the rank of Captain. After his discharge he joined The Palestine Post (now The Jerusalem Post) in 1946. He was the paper’s foreign editor and then served as its diplomatic correspondent and headed the Post’s Tel Aviv bureau until 1954.
From 1954-1960 Orgel was the press attache at the Israel Embassy in Washington and from 1961-1967 he was the spokesman for Technion and El Al. From 1967-1970 he was press counsellor and spokesman for the Israel Mission to the United Nations and from 1971-1979 he was the Reuters news agency senior correspondent in Tel Aviv.
Orgel retired in December, 1971 and has since then been a freelance correspondent, including for the Mutual Broadcasting Company in Washington.
There will be no Daily News Bulletin dated February 16 due to Washington’s Birthday, a postal holiday.
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