Cohen, Shula (fl. 1960s)

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Cohen, Shula (fl. 1960s)

Israeli spy. Name variations: Shulamit Kishak-Cohen; Mata Hari of the Middle East; code name: Pearl. Born in Israel; granddau. of a Jewish rabbi; at 15, entered arranged marriage with Joseph Kisak, a prosperous merchant in Lebanon; children: 7.

Smuggled countless Jewish refugees into Palestine (1940s); ran Mossad operations in Beirut (1950s–60s), providing political documents from Lebanon and Syria and rescuing Jews from Syrian torture; after 14 productive years, was caught, convicted and condemned to hang; sentence was commuted to 7-year prison term; exchanged for Lebanese soldiers (1967), opened a flower shop near the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Received a Simon Wiesenthal Center award (2001).

See also Aviezer Golan, Shula, Code Name the Pearl (Delacorte, 1980); Michael Bar-Zohar, Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel (1998).

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