Eliahu Eilat

Eliahu Elath, born Ilya Menakhemovich Epstein (, ; 16 July 1903 – 21 June 1990) was an Israeli diplomat and Orientalist. In 1948 he became the first Israeli ambassador to the United States, and between 1950 and 1959, he was Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was the President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1962 to 1968.

Biography Epstein informed Harry S. Truman of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he wrote had been proclaimed "within the frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947". Epstein requested US recognition of the new state.

Born in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) as Ilya Menakhemovich Epstein, Elath immigrated from the Soviet Union to Mandatory Palestine in 1924. He then spent a decade as a student and journalist in Beirut

Diplomatic career Jewish Agency By 1934, Eilat was the director of the Jewish Agency for Palestine's Middle East Department, which promoted and facilitated Jewish settlement in Palestine.

Washington, D.C. and Ambassador to the United States In 1945, he became the head of the Jewish Agency's Political Office in Washington, D.C. That same year he came to the United States as the agency's representative in Washington, D.C. Eilat sought and received President Truman’s recognition of Israel's establishment as a state in May 1948.