Mordechai Eliash

Mordechai Eliash (Hebrew: מרדכי אליאש), also spelled Mordecai Eliash, (1892–March 11, 1950) was an Israeli attorney and diplomat. At a time when most Zionists were not observant Jews, and most observant Jews were not Zionists, he quickly became one of the leading lawyers in Mandatory Palestine after his arrival in 1919. Amidst a rise in intercommunal violence, Eliash represented the Jewish community to the Shaw Commission in 1929, the Western Wall Commission in 1930, and the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in 1946. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he was briefly the country's first representative to the United Nations, before his service as the first Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1948 until his death in 1950.