Avi Beker

Avi Beker was born in 1951 in Tel Aviv

Avi Beker was born in Tel Aviv in 1951. His parents, Aharon and Miriam, were the only members of their families from Poland to survive the Holocaust, in the Soviet Union. He attended the Bilu school in Tel Aviv and the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Nehalim.

He served in the IDF and finished as a captain. He earned a bachelor's degree at Tel Aviv University in 1974 and a master's in political science in 1976. He then completed a Ph.D. in political science at the City University of New York, focusing on international relations and arms control.

From 1977 to 1982 he was a member of Israel's mission to the United Nations, serving as personal aide to ambassadors Chaim Herzog and Yehuda Blum and handling arms control talks. Back in Israel he lectured at Tel Aviv University from 1982 to 1985. He then worked for the World Jewish Congress, heading its Israel office, directing international relations and serving as secretary-general.

At the Congress he worked with governments on Jewish property taken during the Nazi period and sat on restitution funds in several European countries. After 2003 he taught diplomacy and international law at Tel Aviv University, Georgetown University and Ono Academic College, and wrote a column for Haaretz. He died on June 4, 2015, after a long illness.