- December 19, 2025
- 7:38 am
- Ukraine
Many prominent political leaders Israel, including 2 presidents and 3 prime ministers, come from UkraineOne of such famous natives is Moshe Sharett.
In 2018, a memorial plaque to the first head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel and the second prime minister of the country, Moshe Sharet, appeared at the oldest gymnasium in Kherson – gymnasium No. 20, formerly the first Kherson men’s gymnasium, where he studied.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was fired upon by Russian troops several times. On May 11, 2023, the shelling of the high school burned down.
After the publication of the material, reader M., who managed to leave Kherson, which was occupied by Rashists, to Israel, said that he studied at this school and was present at the opening of the memorial plaque to Moshe Sharet on the facade of the school.
“After leaving Kherson, the Russian Nazis destroyed the school, which survived the occupation in the First and Second World Wars. Currently, there is no school, only ruins, no boards,” he wrote and sent a photo.
According to him, “On the left, next to the flag of Ukraine, you can see an unpainted place where Sharet’s board was. Now the board is being preserved in the Jewish community of Kherson.”
He was born in 1894 in the city of Kherson and was named Moisei Yakovlevich Chertok at birth. His father had left the Russian Empire, fleeing a wave of pogroms, and settled in Palestine: first in Jaffa, then in Jerusalem.
A few years later he returned and settled in Odessa, where he soon married Fanya Lev. The couple subsequently moved to Kherson, where they had three daughters and two sons, including Moshe.
From childhood he grew up inquisitive and active, distinguished by his interest in learning. Moshe attended cheder, and then graduated from the boys’ gymnasium in Kherson.
His love for linguistics bore fruit: the guy spoke eight languages, including Hebrew. His knowledge gave him a lot to translate, which he practiced, in particular translating into Hebrew.
In 1906, the Chertok family was forced to leave their home again: as a result of the growing threat of pogroms in the then Russian Empire, they decided to leave for the Ottoman Empire, and later for Palestine. By that time, Moshe was 12 years old, and he was forced to actively help his parents with their daily life and the formation of the family. In 1908, they settled in Jaffa, one of the areas from which Tel Aviv was once built.
After successfully completing the Jewish gymnasium, Moshe entered the University of Istanbul, where he began to actively study law. At the outbreak of World War I, he fought as a volunteer in the Ottoman Empire. In 1919, Moshe began working in the secretariat of the Zionist Commission. In the early 1920s, he studied at the London School of Economics. His role in the formation of the state of Israel is special.
His path began with the position of deputy editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper of the General Federation of Workers, Histradut, and experience as editor of the English weekly Davar.
Moshe Chertok was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence of Israel, signed on May 14, 1948. It was then that he became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the country’s history and changed his last name to Sharett, which means “an employee fulfills a duty.” As a minister, Moshe Sharett headed the Israeli delegation at the ceasefire negotiations during the War of Independence and managed to establish diplomatic relations with dozens of countries around the world.
After leaving government service, he ran the Am Oved publishing house and Beit Berl College.
In addition, he was the head of the World Zionist Organization, to which he was elected in 1960. Despite his struggle with a serious illness, Sharett led an active public life and until his death spoke to the public, talking about his views on the construction of the state of Israel.
Moshe Sharett died on July 7, 1965, at the age of 70. He was buried in the Trumpeldor Jewish cemetery next to his wife Tzipora. Today in Ukraine, in Moshe Sharett’s native Kherson, a memorial plaque in his honor was installed on the oldest gymnasium in the city.
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