Description:

Eban Abba

Archive comprised of 15+pp of speech notes, one aerogramme, and notes written on the back of a bond drive brochure from Madison Square Garden. Materials are hand-written and typed in both Hebrew and English. The archive dates from circa 1960s. Most documents are in near fine condition, and some even feature doodles, diagrams, and directions to places in New York City!

Abba Eban jotted down speech notes for a lecture in green pen on three Gat-Rimmon Hotel (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Executive of the Jewish Agency envelopes. Eban clearly recycled these envelopes as one of them is addressed to him as “Hon. Aubrey Eban, Hotel Gal Rimmon [sic] on Tel Aviv”. There are isolated stains and well-defined folds, each envelope measuring about 6” x 5”.

7pp of speech notes in English are inscribed on three pieces of bifold stationery with “The Plaza, Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, New York” letterhead. Note #1 reads in part: “ … is a glimpse into the eternal void where the serene Creator … ” and then continues with a discussion of statesmen “understand[ing] foreign factions” and the atomic bomb. Note #2 discusses a “farewell reunion” in Madison Square Garden that Eban recently attended and then transitions into talking points including “1948” and the “U.N.” Note #3 includes the bullet points: “ Their legacy: buildings, laboratories, libraries”.

9pp of speech notes, including one paper clipped bundle of three pages, are inscribed mostly in English in blue, black, and red pen and pencil on lined yellow legal sized paper. Some notes are fully developed in complete sentences, whereas others appear in underlined list form. An excerpt includes: “The people of Israel share your ? taste for constant oratory … as she advances, across another milestone of danger, to fulfill her destiny … troubled world”. Several doodles of geometric shapes, as well as random words and directions, are scrawled across several pages. In near fine condition but with some scattered paper clip rust impressions, water stains, and probably coffee marks.

Eban inscribed some notes in English the back of a Madison Square Garden Chanukah Festival for Israel Development bond drive printed brochure. It folded out into a ticket reservation stub, a subscription form, and an auto-filled check made payable to the State of Israel. The notes in black ball point pen read in part: “If one hemisphere resounded to his voice, the other was reserve [sic] in its immunity … ”

The aerogramme addressed to “Mr. J. Baal-Teshuva, 220 W. 72 Street, New York 23, N.Y., U.S.A.” is typed with a few handwritten notes. Integral address leaf postmarked from Jerusalem November 1, 1967 and bearing two Israel stamps. The aerogramme sheet unfolded measures 7.125” x 11”. Except for the wrinkled envelope flap and expected folds, in near fine condition. Jacob Baal-Teshuva (born 1929) is a modern art critic. He attended Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where perhaps he encountered Abba Eban.

Abba Eban (1915-2002) was an influential scholar, linguist, and diplomat in mid-twentieth-century Israel. The son of Lithuanian Jews, Eban was educated in England and Ireland and was fluent in ten languages including Hebrew and Arabic. He served in an intelligence capacity in the British Army during World War II in the Middle East, and one of his first diplomatic roles involved making recommendations about the ethnic partitioning of Palestine. From 1950-1959, he was the Israeli ambassador to the United States. Our archival materials likely date from the 1960s, when Eban served as Israel’s Minister of Education, a deputy to the prime minister, and Israel’s Foreign Minister.

This outstanding archive provides us with insights into one of Israel’s most well-known polyglot diplomats!

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