World Jewish Congress mourns passing of David Kimche

10 March 2010

The World Jewish Congress laments the passing of Dr. David Kimche, a retired senior Israeli government official, president of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations and publisher of the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, who died on Tuesday in Jerusalem at the age of 81.

“David Kimche deeply believed that the Jews of the Diaspora had an important role to play in fostering Israel's relations with the wider world, particularly in countries with which Israel does not have formal ties. He saw in the World Jewish Congress an extraordinary bridge between Israel and the Jewish people,” WJC President Ronald S. Lauder declared.

Kimche was born in London in 1928 to a Zionist family with roots in Switzerland. The youngest of nine siblings, he immigrated to Israel at the age of eighteen and fought in the War of Independence on the Jerusalem front. After the war, he enrolled in the Hebrew University and, together with his older brother, the journalist Jon Kimche, he wrote ‘Both Sides of the Hill’, a pioneering work on Israel's War of Independence and the first of many books that he was to author.

In the early 1950s, Kimche began his long association with Israel’s secret service, the Mossad, and is today regarded as one of the organization's founders and outstanding figures. In 1969 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Hebrew University, which focused on the Third World and Afro-Asian politics. David Kimche was also a recognized authority on Africa and had a lifelong love for the African continent. He was especially sensitive to the plight of its newly independent peoples.

In 1979, he left the Mossad and shortly thereafter was appointed director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a post in which he served for seven years.

In 1989, under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress, Kimche established the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, which became a favored platform for the discussion of international affairs from a Jewish and Israeli perspective. Under his leadership, the council hosted a long list of international leaders and luminaries from dozens of countries around the world.

In 2007, he also founded the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, which swiftly became one of the leading publications in the field of international affairs.

“Although David Kimche was a towering figure, he will also be remembered for his modesty, kindness, good humor and graceful demeanor. May his memory be a blessing and may he continue to inspire future generations,” Ronald S. Lauder said.