Harry Hurwitz, an adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, died in Jerusalem on Sept. 29. He was 84.

A Zionist leader in South Africa, Hurwitz formed a fast friendship with Begin when they met in 1946. After Begin was elected prime minister in 1977, he asked Hurwitz to move to Israel to advise him. Hurwitz served in the early 1980s as an information officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington and was on the ground floor in establishing close ties between Israel and the United States Evangelical community.

Perhaps the staunchest defender of Begin’s record as prime minister, Hurwitz established the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem after Begin died in 1992. — jta