Background
Gideon Rafael was born Gideon Ruffer on March 5, 1913, in Berlin, Germany, to a Jewish family. He was the son of a prosperous furrier.
Israeli delegation to the UN in 1950. From left to right: Arthur Lourie, consul general; Dr. J. Robinson, counselor; Abba Eban, envoy extraordinary; Dr. Avraham Katznelson, Minister of Health; Gideon Rafael, Foreign Affairs.
Gideon Rafael studied law at the University of Berlin.
Mrs. Golda Meir with Ishar Harari and Gideon Rafael
Collection of Photographs from the Estate of Gideon Rafael – a Senior Employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
ambassador politician author diplomatist
Gideon Rafael was born Gideon Ruffer on March 5, 1913, in Berlin, Germany, to a Jewish family. He was the son of a prosperous furrier.
Gideon Rafael studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1933, when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, he escaped to France, where he studied at an agricultural school in Toulouse.
Rafael joined the Haganah and was a commander during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. He was later sent to Europe on missions to help illegally smuggle European Jews into Palestine, in defiance of British immigration restrictions. In 1940, he was sent to Rhodes by the Haganah to negotiate with a representative of Adolf Eichmann for the transfer of German Jews to Palestine. He discussed a plan to have 40,000 German Jews sent to Palestine via Rhodes, but the plan fell apart after Italy, which then ruled Rhodes, entered World War II.
During World War II, he enlisted in the British Army, and fought in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. After he was discharged in 1943, he began working for the Jewish Agency. He worked in intelligence, as a liaison with Allied forces and Jewish populations in Europe.
In 1945, he assisted in preparing the Jewish case for the Nuremberg Trials. He also directed efforts to recover lost Jewish property in Europe. Rafael served as an aide to Sharett, and subsequently became an adviser to the Israeli delegation at the United Nations.
In 1953, he returned to Israel and was in charge of United Nations and Middle Eastern affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry until 1957. He conducted secret negotiations with Arab officials and maintained these secret contacts into the 1970s. In 1957, he was appointed Israel's ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, and permanent observer in European and UN institutions in Geneva.
He served in these positions until 1960. In 1967, he became Israeli ambassador to the UN and was serving in this position during the Six-Day War. In 1968, he returned to Israel and was Director-General of the Foreign Ministry until 1972.
In 1973, he was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom and served in this position until 1977, when he returned to Israel and retired. He subsequently published a book about his career. Rafael died in 1999 at the age of 85.
In 1947, Rafael became a member of the Jewish Agency's delegation to the United Nations.
Rafael married Nurit Weissberg, and the couple had a son, Amnon, and two daughters, Michal and Ruth.