Reuven Merhav, formerly director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and a onetime Israeli consul general in Hong Kong, has been appointed director general of the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption.
Merhav told reporters he was undertaking the assignment “with great fear and trepidation,” given the historic nature of the challenge.
Merhav is the personal choice of Immigration and Absorption Minister Yair Tsaban of the leftwing Meretz bloc.
Before joining the foreign service, Merhav served in the defense community. As director general of the Foreign Ministry, he was closely involved in Operation Solomon, the airlift of more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Now, with the last Ethiopian Jews making their way to Israel, the focus of his work will be the former Soviet Union and Jewish communities in the Western world.
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