Nehemiah Levanon

Nehemiah Levanon (נחמיה לבנון; March 23, 1915 – September 2, 2003) was an Israeli intelligence agent, diplomat, head of the Aliyah program Nativ, and a founder of kibbutz Kfar Blum.

Niuma Levitan was born in 1915 in Rujiena, Latvia, to Yosef and Bertha Ilion Levitan.

Yosef, a candy factory manager, was a native of Šiauliai, Lithuania and a communist revolutionary who fled to Russia during the Russian Revolution; he died during the course of the Russian Civil War.

In response to the invasion of Latvia by Germany during World War I, Niuma's sister, mother, grandmother, and other relatives moved to Perm, Russia, and later to Petrograd.

They relocated in 1922 to Tallinn, Estonia (where one of Levitan's aunts lived) with assistance from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, while his grandmother was arranged to sail to America.

Levitan became active in the Tallinn Jewish community by singing in the Jewish choir and participating in Jewish youth groups.

He became inspired by a member of Hashomer Hatzair to join the Labor Zionist movement.

In 1931, Levitan established a chapter of the socialist Zionist youth movement Netzach, a Hebrew acronym for "Pioneer Zionist Youth."

He was active for several years with Netzach, assuming leadership of the Estonian branch in 1933 and the Latvian branch—the movement's largest—by 1937.

For part of this time, he received agricultural training and lived on a communal farm near Tallinn.

In 1937, Levitan began making his way to Palestine.

He stopped briefly in Vienna to assist local Netzach leaders.

Originally a native of Latvia, he immigrated to the Mandatory Palestine in 1938.

Levitan arrived in Palestine in February 1938 and joined the kibbutz Afikim, near the Sea of Galilee.

He and other immigrants (together known as the "Anglo-Baltic kibbutz" due to their lands of birth) moved to the town of Binyamina later that year.

A number of the town's agricultural workers were Arabs who quit work or were fired as a result of the Arab rioting happening across Palestine.

A contingent of the Anglo-Baltic group settled in the Hula Valley in 1941 to work lands owned by the Jewish National Fund.

In October 1943, Levitan married Beba Levin, a fellow community member who he met years earlier at a summer camp in Latvia.

Two weeks later, he laid the cornerstone for kibbutz Kfar Blum.

From 1946 to 1948, he acted as an emissary for the Habonim Dror and Hechalutz chapters in London.

After Israel's independence in 1948, Levanon served in a variety of roles to encourage the well-being and emigration of Soviet Jewry.

Due to the covert nature of his work, Levanon's decades of service were largely unknown until after his retirement, during the last days of the Soviet Union.

He returned to Israel in June 1948 to help the Yishuv during the War of Independence.

After the war, he became an administrator of Kfar Blum and managed the kibbutz's economy.

In 1953, Levitan accepted an invitation from Mossad director Isser Harel to establish contacts in the Soviet Jewish Community.

This was part of an effort by a small, new clandestine agency that reported to the Prime Minister's Office.

Originally known as "Bilu," it was known by the code name "Nativ" and was officially called Lishkat HaKesher, or the "Liaison Bureau."

Levitan changed his name to the more Hebraic-sounding Nehemiah Levanon, as many Israelis did at the time.

At the time of his posting, the Soviet Union had broken off diplomatic relations (in response to the 1953 bombing of the Soviet embassy in Tel Aviv ).

Levanon therefore worked in Sweden until ties were re-established later that year.

Levanon and his family then moved to Moscow, where he disguised his covert activities by working as an agricultural attaché in the Israeli embassy.

After Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, the apparent desire of the Soviet government to improve its image in the West allowed Bar and Nativ to more aggressively press the cause of Soviet Jews.

In 1956, however, he and two other Israeli diplomats were declared persona non grata for their ties to the Soviet Jewish community.

Levanon continued his work from Israel by joining Nativ's Tel Aviv headquarters.

He set up a unit called Bar, composed of Israeli diplomats in the delegations to the U.S., UK, and France.

Bar was tasked specifically with encouraging the immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel and even received funding from the CIA to aid its cause.

From 1956 to 1965, Levanon alternated his Bar activities with his administrative duties at Kfar Blum; he served three stints as the economic administrator of the kibbutz.

In 1965, Levanon was appointed to serve at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., as a representative of Bar.

He told friend Richard Perle in 1970, "The Soviets thought I was interested in raising potatoes. I was interested in raising Jews."

For two years, he met with Soviet Jews to pass along information, prayer books, and pictures of Israel.