Simcha Dinitz

Simcha Dinitz was born in 1929 in Tel Aviv

Simcha Dinitz was born in Tel Aviv in 1929 to Yosef and Bruria. He grew up on Allenby Street and finished high school at the Herzliya Gymnasium.

He studied political science at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. He earned a master's degree in international law at Georgetown University. While studying, he worked as a night guard at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

He joined the Foreign Ministry and held posts in Rome and Washington. In 1969 he became political secretary to Prime Minister Golda Meir, and in 1972 Director General of the Prime Minister's Office. As ambassador in Washington from 1973, he worked to secure a US airlift of arms during the Yom Kippur War and took part in the Camp David talks with Egypt.

He was a Knesset member for the Alignment from 1984 to 1988 and sat on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He later chaired the Jewish Agency, working on immigration from the Soviet Union and coordinating Operation Solomon.

In 1995 he left the Jewish Agency after being indicted. The district court acquitted him of one charge and convicted him of the other. The Supreme Court accepted his appeal and acquitted him. He died in 2003 and was buried on Mount Herzl.