Key Facts
Career & Education
About
Zalman Shoval is an Israeli banker, politician, and diplomat born on April 28, 1930. His family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1938. He attended Ben-Yehuda School and Geula high school in Tel Aviv, earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in International Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Shoval had stints in Military Intelligence and the Foreign Ministry, served 14 years in the Knesset as a member of four different political parties including the Rafi-State List and Likud, and acted as an advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu on foreign affairs. He served as Israel's Ambassador to the United States from 1990 to 1993 under Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, and again from 1998 to 2000 under Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, navigating U.S. administrations including those of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. In business, he is a founder of the Jerusalem Bank where he still sits on the board of directors, serves as Chairman of Export Investment Co Ltd, and has affiliations with the Israel America Chamber of Commerce. He is active in Israel's economic life and authored the book 'Jerusalem and Washington: A Life in Politics and Diplomacy'. Shoval's career spans politics, diplomacy, and finance, contributing to Israel's international relations and economic development, and he has been featured in media outlets such as The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and The Times of Israel.