Burial services were held here today for Zeev Sharef, a veteran civil servant who served as secretary to the first Israeli Cabinet in 1948 and later as a Cabinet Minister. Sharef, who was known as Israel’s “number one civil servant,” died yesterday at the age of 78.
A native of Bukovina, Rumania, Sharef was appointed by Premier David Ben Gurion as secretary to the Cabinet set up on May 14, 1948, the day of Israel’s independence. He organized the ceremonies at the Tel Aviv Museum where the Declaration of Independence was formally signed.
Sharef is credited with establishing the principles and practices of Israel’s civil service in the early days of the State and was the country’s first Civil Service Commissioner. In the 1960s his nomination to be State Comptroller was blocked by the Herut opposition on grounds that his close ties to Mapai, a forerunner of the present Labor Party, posed a conflict of interests.
Sharef was elected to the Knesset on the Mapai slate in 1965 and appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry. He subsequently served one year as Minister of Finance in the government of Premier Golda Meir and later as Minister of Housing.
A political hawk, Sharef was closely associated with Meir’s policies and was a personal friend. His political career ended when Mrs. Meir stepped down in 1974.
Apart from his political activities, Sharef was deeply interested in education and the arts and supported cultural and educational institutions in Israel. In the years before his death, he devoted himself to voluntary work and lectures to groups of soldiers.
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