Editing Abba Eban (section)

==Early life==
Eban was born in [[Cape Town]], South Africa, on 2 February 1915 to [[Lithuanian Jews|Lithuanian Jewish]]<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news |last=Charney |first=Marc D. |date=November 18, 2002 |title=Abba Eban, Eloquent Defender And Voice of Israel, Is Dead at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/18/world/abba-eban-eloquent-defender-and-voice-of-israel-is-dead-at-87.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207082019/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/18/world/abba-eban-eloquent-defender-and-voice-of-israel-is-dead-at-87.html |archive-date=7 February 2012 |access-date=22 September 2015 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title = Abba Eban [obituary]|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1413478/Abba-Eban.html|newspaper=The Telegraph|date = 18 November 2002|access-date = 22 September 2015}}</ref> parents. His father, Avram Solomon, died in London to which the family had come seeking treatment for his undiagnosed illness less than a week before Eban's first birthday.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-11-18 |title=Obituary: Abba Eban |url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/nov/18/guardianobituaries.israel |access-date=2022-04-15 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> He recalled being sent to his grandfather's house as a child to study the [[Hebrew language]], [[Talmud]], and [[Books of the Bible|Biblical literature]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eban |first=Abba Solomon |url=https://archive.org/details/abbaebanautobiog0000eban/mode/2up |title=Abba Eban : an Autobiography |publisher=Random House |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-394-49302-2 |publication-place=New York |page=6 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> He lived for a period of time in [[Belfast]].<ref>Gaffe, Steven (20 November 2002) [http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/imported/belfasts-legacy-to-the-israelis-13594537.html Belfast's legacy to the Israelis]." ''Belfast Telegraph''. Retrieved 3 January 2016.</ref>

He attended [[St Olave's Grammar School]], then in [[Southwark]], and read Classics and Oriental languages at [[Queens' College, Cambridge]], where he achieved a very rare [[British undergraduate degree classification#Double first-class honours|triple first]], studying Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian; these were three of the ten languages he would reportedly master<ref>Those being Greek, Latin, English, Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, French, German and Spanish.</ref> (he enjoyed translating newspapers into Ancient Greek).<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Bronner |first=Ethan |date=2015-12-31 |title='Abba Eban: A Biography,' by Asaf Siniver |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/books/review/abba-eban-a-biography-by-asaf-siniver.html |access-date=2022-04-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> At the age of 23, he became a [[Fellow]] of [[Pembroke College, Cambridge|Pembroke College]], a role he held from 1938 to 1939, and was marked for a distinguished academic career.<ref name=":0" />

During his time at university and afterwards, Eban was highly involved in the [[Federation of Zionist Youth]] and was editor of its journal, ''The Young Zionist''. At the outbreak of World War II, he worked for [[Chaim Weizmann]] at the [[Zionist Organization]] in London from December 1939.

He served in the British Army in Egypt and Mandate Palestine, becoming an intelligence officer in Jerusalem, where he coordinated and trained volunteers for resistance in the event of a German invasion, serving as a liaison officer for the Allies to the Jewish [[Yishuv]].

After the war he continued in his post, helping to establish and run the British Foreign Office's [[Middle East Centre for Arab Studies]] which was originally based in Jerusalem before relocating to Shemlan near Beirut. He was at that time known as "Aubrey Evans".<ref>Cowper-Coles, Sherard. ''Ever the Diplomat: Confessions of a Foreign Office Mandarin''. London: HarperPress, 2012. p. 19.</ref>

In 1947, he translated from the original Arabic ''Maze of Justice: Diary of a Country Prosecutor'', a 1937 novel by [[Tawfiq al-Hakim]].<ref>Johnson-Davies, Denys (2008). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=xVKxaEfmez8C&pg=PA3 Introduction]". In: Johnson-Davies (ed.). ''The Essential Tawfiq Al-Hakim: Plays, Fiction, Autobiography'' (pp. 1–4). Cairo; New York: The American University in Cairo Press. p. 4. This edited volume contains an excerpt from the novel, in Eban's translation, pp. 201–210.</ref><ref>The translation was published in 1947 by Harvill Press, London; see: {{OCLC|6191719}}. It was reissued in 1989 under the title ''Maze of Justice: Diary of a country prosecutor: an Egyptian novel'' (London: Saqi Books; Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press).</ref>