Avigur was born in Dvinsk under the name
Saul Meyeroff (
later Meirov; ), but when his son
Gur Meyeroff was killed in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, he changed it to
Avigur, meaning "Father of Gur". Along with
Reuven Shiloah, Avigur was instrumental in forming
SHAI, the intelligence wing of the
Haganah, in 1934. Since 1939 he was involved in the
Mossad Le'aliyah Bet operations to smuggle Jews into the
British Mandate of Palestine and was named its commander. During the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, he acted as
David Ben-Gurion's deputy defense minister. In 1953 he was appointed the founding head of the "Liaison Bureau" (
Lishkat Hakesher), also known as "Nativ", an Israeli organization that maintained contact with Jews in the
Soviet Union during the
Cold War. He headed the organization until 1970. Avigur was the brother-in-law of former Prime Minister
Moshe Sharett. ==Awards==