33 Facts About Moshe Sharett

Moshe Sharett was the second prime minister of Israel and the country's first foreign minister.

Moshe Sharett signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence and was a principal negotiator in the cease-fire agreements that concluded the Israeli War of Independence.

Moshe Sharett founded the Jewish Brigade, which fought with the British Army during World War II.

Moshe Sharett was born in Kherson in the Russian Empire to the family of Yaakov Chertok and Fanya nee Lev.

Moshe Sharett graduated from the first class of the Herzliya Hebrew High School, even studying music at the Shulamit Conservatory.

Moshe Sharett then went to Constantinople to study law at Istanbul University, the same university at which Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and David Ben-Gurion studied.

In 1922, Moshe Sharett married Tzippora Meirov, with whom he had two sons, Ya'akov and Haim, and a daughter, Yael.

Moshe Sharett became a member of Ahdut Ha'Avoda, and later of Mapai.

Moshe Sharett then worked on the Davar newspaper from 1925 until 1931.

Moshe Sharett met with Tel Aviv-bound Hungarian Jewish refugee representative Joel Brand, fresh off the plane from Budapest.

Moshe Sharett's response was to hand the self-appointed liberator over to the British authorities, who drove Brand to prison in Egypt.

Moshe Sharett held the foreign policy post under the Jewish Agency until the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Moshe Sharett was one of the signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence.

American Dr Ralph Bunche, who drafted the United Nations treaty for Moshe Sharett's office, received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Moshe Sharett continuously held this role until he retired in June 1956, including during his tenure as Prime Minister.

Moshe Sharett met with Pius XII in 1952 in an attempt to improve relations with the Holy See, although this was to no avail.

David Ben-Gurion withdrew from politics in 1953, and Moshe Sharett was chosen by the party to take his place.

Moshe Sharett soon discovered that operations were being prepared for execution in other Arab capitals.

Moshe Sharett called for a Public Inquiry led by a Judge of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Olshan, and a former Chief of Staff, Ya'akov Dori.

Sharett had wanted to appoint Moshe Dayan as Minister of Defense but was aware that he was a controversial figure.

Moshe Sharett appealed to a sense of fairness from Colonel Nasser, but to no avail.

Moshe Sharett might have learned from Weizmann's experience at befriending the consummate politician Ben-Gurion; Moshe Sharett believed he could install him as his subordinate.

Moshe Sharett had attempted to be pacifistic and restrained during his premiership, but was overtaken by the vocal elements in Mapai and their growing electoral support in the run-up to a General election.

Moshe Sharett was concerned that casualties should be kept to an absolute minimum; 8 Israelis and 37 Egyptians died in an operation that was the most bloody since the armistice of 1949.

Moshe Sharett's diary included passages in which he bewailed the senseless denigration of duty lacking credibility.

Moshe Sharett harked back to the days of Havlagah when in the 1930s both he, Sharett and Ben-Gurion had pursued a policy of self-restraint in matters military.

Moshe Sharett opposed any move that would attract moral outcry of European powers and an arms trade embargo.

Moshe Sharett retained his role as Foreign Minister under the new government of Ben-Gurion.

Moshe Sharett came to see Nasser as "suffering from delusions of grandeur" with an almost Hitlerite ambition to export revolution abroad.

Moshe Sharett made a significant deal with France for jets and artillery.

Moshe Sharett died in Jerusalem in 1965, and was buried in Tel Aviv's Trumpeldor Cemetery.

From 1988 to 2017, Moshe Sharett appeared on the 20 NIS bills.

In November 2017, Moshe Sharett's portrait was replaced with that of Rachel Bluwstein.