Mordechai GazitIn memory · 1922–2016
עברית

A man. A calling. A nation’s story.

Mordechai
Gazit

Motke · 1922 — 2016

A life in the service of Israel.
A memory that stays with us.

Diplomat, Director-General of the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office, ambassador and scholar. The story of a man whose path was intertwined with Israel’s own.

Explore his life
Mordechai Gazit — a black-and-white portrait from the family album
Gazit family album / Shy Adam · Source · CC BY-SA 3.0
In loving and grateful memoryMeet the man MORDECHAI GAZIT
The person within history

Behind the public roles,
a life devoted to service.

From service in the Haganah, through the rooms where diplomatic talks took place, to the books in which he returned to examine them — Mordechai Gazit helped shape events, then became a witness to and a scholar of them.

The documents preserve his work: clarifying a message during a crisis, revising a draft, taking part in a conversation with world leaders. His writings and testimony also bring us closer to the way he understood his times. This is a story of many years of service, told here through the sources he left behind.[H1][D1][D3]

Where would you like to start?

A themed routeHis JerusalemFour stops, from 1948 to the friendship with Teddy Kollek
  1. 1948A commander in the battle for the road to the city, wounded in the Jewish Quarter
  2. 1962From Washington, an appeal for the Mount of Olives cemetery
  3. After 1967Chairing the group of senior officials Teddy Kollek set up to think about the city’s future
  4. At homeA personal friendship with Kollek, and a home in the Wolfson neighbourhood near the Knesset

His life at a glance

The main roles and dates. Each one leads to fuller documentation on the site.

The full timeline, with sources
1922
Born in Istanbul5 September, as Mordechai Weinstein; came to the Land of Israel with his family as a child
1948
Haganah commander in the battle for JerusalemAl-Qastal, and the effort to reinforce the Jewish Quarter, where he was wounded
1949
Joins the Foreign ServiceLondon and Rangoon, later the Foreign Minister’s office in Jerusalem
1960–1965
Minister at the embassy in WashingtonFrequently chargé d’affaires
1972–1973
Director-General, Foreign Ministry
1973–1975
Director-General, Prime Minister’s OfficeAlongside Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin, through the Yom Kippur War and the diplomacy that followed
1975
Signs the interim agreement with Egypt in GenevaHeading the Israeli delegation with Major General Herzl Shafir
1975–1979
Israel’s ambassador to FranceNamed in 1975; some sources date the start of the posting to 1976
From 1980
Scholar and authorHarvard fellow, Truman Institute researcher, books and articles on negotiation and foreign policy
2016
Died on 29 May, aged 93

The places of his life

Eight places, one life. Jerusalem keeps coming back: the city he fought for, worked for and came home to.

A moment from the archive · 1973

Present at moments
that became history.

At the end of the Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir travelled to Washington for talks. Alongside the Prime Minister, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Gazit can also be seen. The records of that day preserve his comments on direct talks and on the wording of the arrangements.[P2][D2]

The stories behind the documents
Golda Meir and Richard Nixon outside the White House; Mordechai Gazit is at the far right, behind Henry Kissinger
Washington, November 1, 1973. Gazit is at the far right, behind Kissinger.Marion S. Trikosko · Library of Congress · Original photograph

Four moments worth knowing

Behind the titles are small scenes, preserved in films, memoranda and interviews.

1963 · Washington

Signing for Israel

A newsreel from that year shows him, as the embassy’s chargé d’affaires, signing Israel’s accession to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Watch the film: Signing for Israel

1975 · Jerusalem

“Too sensible”

Egypt’s foreign minister would not let Gazit draft a clause. The reason, as Kissinger told the Israeli team: Gazit was too sensible. The room laughed.

Read the story: “Too sensible”

1975 · Geneva

Two 24-hour sessions

Sadat would not let the talks slip into 1976, and that September’s holidays left few working days. Gazit recalled it years later — with a smile.

On the timeline: Two 24-hour sessions

In his own words

We found out we were dealing with a very serious government, bent on a settlement.

On the 1975 negotiations with Egypt · Harvard Crimson interview, 1980

Serving the new state rather than minding my own little shop.

On giving up archaeology for public service · 1980

You can offer the discipline of political science a different angle as a practitioner rather than a theorist.

On moving from diplomacy to research · 1980

Diplomacy by automation.

On Arab diplomacy after 1967 · Golda Meir Institute interview, 1987

The 1987 quotation is translated from Hebrew by the site.

Rina and Mordechai Gazit sitting beside one another in a colour photograph from the family album.
Mordechai and Rina Gazit · From the family album

Through his family’s eyes

To us, Grandpa Motke.

With Rina, with his siblings, and in the words his grandson wrote in his memory. The family photographs open a window onto the person behind the public roles.

Open the family album
Through his family’s eyes
“If only he were still here, for one last embrace, with love and appreciation from us all.”
Dan-Eyal Gazit, his grandson · From a tribute marking the centenary of his birth, translated from HebrewTo us, Grandpa Motke

Did you know Motke? If you have a memory, a letter or a photograph of him, we would love to hear from you.