Esther Herlitz

Esther Herlitz was born in 1921 in Berlin

Herlitz was born in Berlin in 1921. Her father, George Herlitz, founded the Central Zionist Archives. She moved with her family to the Land of Israel in 1933 and went to high school in Jerusalem.

She trained at a teachers seminary and taught in Karkur in 1941 and 1942. She joined the Haganah and served in the British Army women's corps from 1942 to 1946. In 1948 she was drafted into the IDF in Jerusalem.

In 1948 she began work at the Foreign Ministry as head of the United States desk. She became First Secretary at the embassy in Washington in 1950 and later served as consul in New York. From 1966 to 1971 she was ambassador to Denmark.

She was elected to the Knesset for the Alignment in 1974 and served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. She returned to the Knesset in 1979 after the death of Yehoshua Rabinovitz and lost her seat in 1981.

She later headed the International Harp Contest in Israel as a volunteer from 1983 to 2010. She received the Israel Prize in 2015 and died in 2016.