Yosef Tekoah ( he, יוסף תקוע, 4 March 1925 – 14 April 1991) was a senior

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i diplomat and the President of the

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...

(1975–1981). He was instrumental in the Israeli settlement in disputed DMZ territories with Syria, serving as one of

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...

's favorite diplomats.

Biography

Tekoah was born in

Lyakhavichy Liachavičy ( be, Ляхавічы, , russian: Ляховичи, pl, Lachowicze, yi, לעכאוויטש ''Lekhavitsh'', lt, Liachivičai) is a city in the southwestern Belarusian Brest Region. History Known since the 15th century in the Grand D ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

as Yosef Tukaczynski. At the age of five he emigrated with his family to Harbin, due to the rise of fascism in his homeland. Some time after the Fall of Harbin to the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, Tekoah's family moved to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

for financial purposes. He had a Master’s Degree in

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he also taught and

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Natural and legal rights Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights. * Natural rights are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are ''universal'', ''fundamental'' and ...

from

Aurora University Aurora University (AU) is a private university in Aurora, Illinois. In addition to its main campus and the Orchard Center in Aurora, AU offers programs online, at its George Williams College campus in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, and at the Woods ...

. In 1948 he made Aliyah, changed his name to Tekoah and started working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he met his wife, Ruth Tekoah. During his work in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tekoah appointed for several positions: * The Israel Foreign Ministry legal adviser (1949–1953) * Head of

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

Affairs in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1954–1958) * Deputy and Acting Head of the Israeli delegation to the UN (1958–1960) * The

i Ambassador to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(1960–1962) * The

i Ambassador to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(1962–1965) * VP of the

Israeli Foreign Ministry The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ, translit. ''Misrad HaHutz''; ar, وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية) is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministry's ...

(1965–1967) *

Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations The Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations is the de facto Israel Ambassador to the United Nations, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Office holders Permanent Mission of Israel to the ...

(1968–1975) He was the President of the

from 1975 to 1981, following

Moshe Prywes Moshe Prywes (משה פריבס; January 3, 1914 - March 1998) was a Polish-Israeli physician and educator. He was the first President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1973-1975). Biography Prywes was born in Warsaw, Poland. He studied medic ...

and succeeded by

Shlomo Gazit Shlomo Gazit ( he, שלמה גזית; 22 October 1926 – 8 October 2020) was an Israeli military officer and academic. A Major General in the Israel Defense Forces, he headed Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate. He later served as Presid ...

. Historian Avi Shlaim stated that he "could always be relied on y Israel and the IDFto produce legal arguments to justify even the most outrageous Israeli actions," and that "in his view the basic function of Israeli diplomacy was to service the country's security needs." Tekoah died in 1991 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

after a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

. Tekoah knew fluent

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, French,

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

References

External links

Yosef Tekoah, 65, Israeli Delegate To the U.N. for 7 Years, Is Dead

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Presidents of the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tekoah, Yosef Ambassadors of Israel to the Soviet Union Ambassadors of Israel to Brazil 1925 births 1991 deaths Israeli Jews Harvard University alumni Polish emigrants to Israel Presidents of universities in Israel Polish expatriates in China Polish expatriates in the United States Aurora University alumni