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Eliyahu Dobkin, the Head of the Aliya Department in the Jewish Agency Executive, who was called the "Aliya Minister for the Nascent State" receives the "Children of Tehran" upon their arrival in Israel, 1943
The Riddle in the Political Department
The function of the Jewish Agency's Political Department, which can be defined as the "mother of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" was to initiate and preserve ties with the mandate government, the British Government, foreign countries, the Arabs of the Land of Israel and the Arab countries. The Department was headed by Moshe Shertok (later Sharett), who served in this position for 15 years, from 1933 until the establishment of the state in 1948. Endless letters and telegrams came out of the Department's office in the National Institutions Building in Jerusalem every week. Most were open and some were encrypted. The following is an example of an encrypted letter sent by Department Head Shertok to the Chairman of the Jewish Agency David Ben-Gurion, who was in London in the summer of 1937.
It was the eve of the publication of the conclusions of the "Peel Commission," which had been appointed by the British Government to examine the reasons for the outbreak of the "Arab Revolt"
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