Maurice Fischer

Maurice Fischer was born in 1903 in Antwerp

Maurice Fischer was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1903. His father, Jean (Yona) Fischer, was a diamond dealer and Zionist activist. He studied at Brussels College and moved to the Land of Israel in 1930.

He worked in settlement and farming. With his uncle Yehoshua Fischer he founded the village of Kfar Yona, named after his father. In 1932 he helped found the Hasharon Orchards company.

In 1942 he joined the Free French Army and served as an intelligence officer in Syria and Lebanon until 1946. He was a link between de Gaulle's movement and the Yishuv leaders and arranged a meeting between Ben-Gurion and the French mission head in 1944. France made him an officer of the Legion of Honor.

After the war he was political secretary of the Jewish Agency in Paris. In 1948 he became Israel's representative in Paris and in 1949 its ambassador to France. He was envoy to Turkey from 1953 to 1957, then held senior posts at the Foreign Ministry.

In 1960 he became ambassador to Italy and also handled ties with the Vatican. He helped organize the 1964 visit of Pope Paul VI to Israel. He died in Switzerland in 1965 while still ambassador and was buried in Jerusalem.