October 15, 1894
Moshe Sharett is born as Moshe Shertok in Kherson, Ukraine. Sharett’s parents were early Zionists, having been involved in the BILU movement in the early 1880s when they moved to the Land of Israel, but ultimately did not stay. The family returns in 1906, eventually settling in Jaffa. Sharett attends the Herzliyah gymnasium school and later studies law in Constantinople. During World War I, he serves in the Turkish army as a volunteer.
In 1933, after the assassination of Chaim Arlosoroff on a Tel Aviv beach, Moshe Sharett becomes the head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, second in power only to David Ben-Gurion, who serves as the agency’s director. During World War II, Sharett establishes the Jewish Brigade, an independent, national Jewish military formation that fights as part of the British Army.
A signer of Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948, he becomes the country’s first foreign minister and leads the delegation that brokers the cease-fire agreements at the conclusion of the War of Independence.
In 1953 when Ben-Gurion announces that he is retiring as prime minister, Sharett is appointed as his successor by the Mapai party, and on Jan. 26, 1954, he becomes Israel’s second prime minister. But Ben-Gurion’s retirement is short-lived. Feeling that Sharett is too moderate and worried about Arab arms buildups, he returns as defense minister in 1955 in the wake of the Lavon Affair. The rift between Ben-Gurion and Sharett grows, and Ben-Gurion regains control of Mapai in time for the July 1955 election, which returns him to the prime minister’s office in November of that year.