Hanan Aynor

Hanan Aynor was born in 1916 in Frankfurt

Hanan Aynor was born Hans Sonneborn in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1916, to Hermann and Antonia Sonneborn. He fled Nazi Germany and spent several years in France. He then moved to pre-state Israel and joined Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov.

During World War II he served in the British Army behind enemy lines in occupied France. After the war he worked with Aliyah Bet in Europe, helping Holocaust survivors reach the Land of Israel. He was the chief translator for the ship Exodus while it was held in the port of Marseille.

After Israel was founded he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving in Canada, Brazil and at the UN. In 1958 Golda Meir appointed him to head a new section for technical cooperation, which became an independent department in 1960 and later MASHAV. He was ambassador to Senegal and Gambia, Ethiopia, Mexico and Zaire, and twice directed the Africa Department.

He was Israel's last ambassador to Ethiopia before Haile Selassie cut ties with Israel around the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He headed the Israel-Africa Friendship League until his death in Jerusalem in 1993. In 1994 his wife Sarah founded a fund in his name that gives scholarships to Israelis of Ethiopian origin.