Honorary Member Adin Talbar (ISR) at the 2009 SU in BelgradeLAUSANNE – It is with great sadness that FISU informs the FISU Family that Honorary Member Adin Talbar has passed away on September 7th at the age of 92.
Adin Talbar was born from German parents who emigrated in 1935 when the anti-Semitic discrimination in Germany increased. In 1942 he became an officer in the Palestine Regiment of the British Army and as an assault pioneer he saw combat in northern Italy in 1944–1945. After the Second World War, Adin Talbar became active in the Israeli government. After his graduation from the university he joined the Israel Finance Ministry. He served as Israeli Consul to Canada in Montreal from 1957 to 1960, and between 1961 and 1965 he was economic counsellor at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. During this time he negotiated with the United States amongst others the ‘Food for Peace’ agreement. As Deputy Director General of the Commerce and Industry Ministry he was the Israeli negotiator at the Kennedy Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) from 1965 to 1967. He negotiated the economic agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany (1965–66), and he was the representative of the Commerce Ministry for the negotiations with the European Community to reach a free trade agreement between 1965 and 1975. Thereafter he entered private business, became a consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and referee at GATT.
Talbar was the national 800 meter champion in 1942 and medium distance champion of the 8th British Army in 1945. In 1953 he founded the Israeli Academic Sports Association (ASA) and was its representative to FISU from 1954 to 1977. Furthermore, he was chief auditor of the FISU Executive Board from 1967 to 1971. In light of Talbar’s success to convince the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to join FISU and due to his efforts to reconcile the eastern and western blocks in sports, Adin Talbar was made honorary member of FISU in 2001.
C. Pierre, Press Officer