Eliahu Elath; First Ambassador to U.S. for Israel

Eliahu Elath, an Israeli diplomat who in 1948 submitted the new Jewish state’s request for diplomatic recognition from the United States, died Thursday in Jerusalem. He was 86.

A statement by Hebrew University did not give the cause of death.

Elath was Israel’s first ambassador to Washington and submitted the request to then-President Harry S. Truman. It was quickly approved, giving a boost to the new state’s international standing.

Born in the Ukraine, Elath immigrated to Palestine in 1925 and later studied Middle East cultures at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

While in Lebanon in the 1930s, Elath worked for the Reuters news agency and was a correspondent for the Davar and Palestine Post dailies, owned by the Histadrut Labor Federation.

In 1934, Elath became head of the Jewish Agency Political Department, a precursor to the Israeli government established after independence in May, 1948.

He was sent as the agency’s envoy to Washington in 1945 and became the Israeli ambassador with the founding of the state. He was replaced as Washington ambassador in 1950 by Abba Eban, later Israel’s foreign minister.

Elath was president of Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1962 to 1968. Earlier this month he won an honorary doctorate from the institution for his work in trying to foster better Jewish-Arab relations.

He is survived by his wife, Zahava.