Eytan (Ettinghausen), Walter
EYTAN (Ettinghausen), WALTER
EYTAN (Ettinghausen), WALTER (1910–2001), Israel diplomat. He was the son of Maurice L. Ettinghausen (1882–1974), bibliophile and antiquarian bookseller. Eytan, born in Munich, was educated in England and taught German language and literature in Oxford from 1934. Eytan served in the British army from 1940 to 1945. Settling in Palestine in 1946, he served as director of the Civil Service and Diplomatic College of the *Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. In this capacity, and particularly as first general director of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs under Moshe *Sharett and Golda *Meir (1948–59), he greatly influenced the structure and character of Israel's foreign service. In 1949 he headed the Israel delegation both to the Rhodes armistice negotiations and to the Lausanne Conference with the Arab states (see State of *Israel: Historical Survey). In 1955 Eytan headed the Israel delegation to the Atomic Energy Conference in Geneva. He served as Israel ambassador to France from 1959 until 1970. In March 1972, Eytan was appointed head of the Board of Governors of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, in succession to Chaim *Yahil, and held the position until his retirement in 1978. He wrote The First Ten Years: Diplomatic History of Israel (1958).
[Netanel Lorch]