6. The Mysterious Yisrael Bar
Yisrael Bar (1912 – 1966) was an Israeli officer, who was tasked by the Israeli Ministry of Defense with writing a book on the Israeli War of Independence. He was also a trusted confidant of Israeli prime minister David Ben Gurion. Bar arrived in Palestine in the late 1930s with an impressive CV, having graduated from the Austrian military academy and served as an officer in the Austrian army, then fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigade. Between his martial exploits, he got a PhD in literature from the University of Vienna.
The CV was fake. Bar was a Soviet spy, and not even a Jew. Urbane and handsome, he became famous in Tel Aviv’s nightlife as a ladies’ man, but it took a long time before the fact that he was uncircumcised raised suspicions. Bar took advantage of his access to Israel’s prime minister, whose diary he raided to not only photocopy, but to tear out entire pages and pass them on to his handlers. He was finally caught in 1961, delivering a briefcase stuffed with sensitive materials to the KGB. He never revealed his true identity during interrogations. He was tried and convicted of espionage, and sentenced to jail, where he died in 1966, taking the secret of his identity to his grave.
