JERUSALEM — Yehuda Avner, a speechwriter and adviser to four Israeli prime ministers, died Tuesday.
Avner, who wrote a memoir about his government service called The Prime Ministers, was 86.
As the speechwriter and adviser to Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin, Avner was present at many of the most historical and private moments of the state and its leaders.
His son-in-law David Sable called Avner “Begin’s Shakespeare.” Sable wrote in a statement that Avner “was a true servant of the Jewish people. The statement said that in Avner’s role as adviser “to the Generation of Legendary Leaders of Israel he was never political, never took personal gain, never shied from conflict.”
An emigre from England to British Mandate Palestine in 1947, Avner also served as Israeli ambassador to Australia and the United Kingdom.
— JTA News & Features
