Moshe Sharett (Shertok) (1894

Lexicon of Terms

Political Biography

Outgoing Prime Minister Moshe Sharett shares a secret with incoming Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion August 15, 1955.

Lexicon of Terms

Moshe Sharett (Shertok) (1894–1965)

Statesman, leader of Mapai, member of the Knesset, minister, and prime minister during the years 1954 and 1955.

Sharett was born in Russia and made Aliyah with his parents to Eretz Yisrael in 1906. During the First World War he served as an officer in the Ottoman army. He became active in the Ahdut Ha'avoda party and later after 1930, in Mapai. He was a member of the editorial board of "Davar" newspaper, the daily newspaper of the Histadrut.

In 1933, after the head of the Political Department in the Jewish Agency Haim Arlosoroff was murdered, Sharett was appointed to his post. He became a prominent spokesman for Zionism in negotiations with the British and Arabs, in search for an agreed solution to the fate of Eretz Yisrael. His unrelenting struggle for the formation of Jewish units within the British army during the Second World War brought about the establishment of the Jewish Brigade in 1944. During and after the war, he took an active part in directing members of the Brigade in their actions toward saving survivors and helping them make Aliyah to Israel. Sharett was arrested in the "Black Shabbat" operation in June 1946, together with other executive members of the Jewish Agency.

Following the establishment of the State he was elected on behalf of Mapai to the First Knesset (1949), and served as a member of the Knesset until and throughout the Fifth Knesset (1961). Sharett served as the Foreign Minister of Israel from the establishment of the Provisional Government (1948) and until 1956. In 1954 – 1955, after Ben Gurion retired to Sde Boker, he had also served as prime minister. He was forced to resign as prime minister after the "Lavon Affair," and Ben Gurion then resumed the post. In 1956 Sharett resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over differences of opinion with Ben Gurion on matters of foreign affairs and defense, as well as the Lavon Affair.

From 1960 and until his passing, Sharett was Chairman of the Jewish Agency and of the Zionist Executive. He also headed the Histadrut's publishing company "Am Oved" and was chairman of "Beit Berl."