Esther Herlitz
Esther Herlitz (Hebrew אסתר הרליץ; born October 9, 1921 in Berlin) is an Israeli diplomat and politician.
Herlitz was born in 1921 as the daughter of George and Irma Herlitz in Berlin. Together with her younger sister Miriam (1925-1975) she attended a Humanistic Gymnasium. 1933 the family emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine to Jerusalem. Herlitz visited here the Gymnasia Ivrit in Rehavia and then the newly founded Hebrew University High School in Bet ha - Kerem. In Palestine she joined the Mahanot Olim Youth Movement and Haganah. After finishing school in 1938, she studied at Hebrew Teachers College (now the David Yellin Teachers Seminary ). She then taught at the school in Karkur and worked in their spare time as a secretary for the local branch of the Women's International Zionist Organization. In July 1943, she was at the end of the school year on their location in order to register for the Auxiliary Territorial Service of the British armed forces. During her four and a half years of service, she was the first instructor in Sarafand training camp and was later active as an officer in Egypt. Since she was unmarried and childless, she remained until early 1946 stationed in Egypt. While serving in the British Armed Forces Herlitz continued its activity for the Haganah. When in 1947 the first 25 candidates were approved for the newly founded by the Jewish Agency Diplomatic School, she was one of five women in this group. In early March 1948, she interrupted her training to fight in Palestine war. In the summer of the same year it was released at the request of Moshe Scharet and began the Israeli foreign ministry to operate in Tel Aviv. 1950 Herlitz was First Secretary of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. Later she was transferred to New York where she was from 1955 to 1958 Israeli consul.
Upon her return to Israel in March 1958, Herlitz was exempt for four years to participate in the construction of the International Department of Mapai. In 1959 she was elected to the city council of Tel Aviv and was there from 1960 to 1964 chairman of the culture committee. From 1962, she worked again in the Foreign Ministry, with a short break in 1965 when she ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Knesset. 1966 Herlitz was the second woman ever Israeli ambassador. She represented her country until 1971 in Denmark. In 1972, Herlitz the Center for Volunteer Services, which she chaired until 1978 also.
In 1973, their election to the Knesset. In the next elections in 1977, however, Herlitz could not defend their mandate. In 1979, she was again Knesset member, as they nachrückte on 14 August for the late Joshua Rabinowitz. After an unsuccessful candidacy in the elections in 1981 she retired from the Parliament.
From 1977 to 1981, Herlitz was secretary of the local branch of Na'amat in Tel Aviv. In addition, she served on the Central Committee of Na'amat. In 1994, she published her autobiography Esther - or what can a Women Accomplish.