Shaul Avigur
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Shaul Avigur (1899-1978) was a founder of the Israeli Intelligence Community. Avigur was born in Latvia under the name Saul Meyeroff{Meirov}, but when his son Gur Meyeroff was killed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he changed it to Avigur, meaning "Father of Gur". Along with Reuven Shiloah, Avigur was instrumental in forming SHAI, the intelligence wing of the Haganah, in 1934. During Israel's War of Independence he acted as David Ben-Gurion's deputy defense minister. He was later involved in the Mossad Le'aliyah Bet operations to smuggle Jews into the British Mandate of Palestine and was named its commander after the establishment of Israel. In 1953 he was appointed the founding head of Lishkat Hakesher, an Israeli organization that maintained contact with Jews in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Avigur is the brother-in-law of former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett.
[edit] References
- Raviv, Dan and Melman, Yossi. Every Spy a Prince: The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. ISBN 0-395-47102-8
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