Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1784

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.42 linear feet (1 box)

Language Note:

The bulk of the material is in Spanish with a small amount in Hebrew, Yiddish and German.

Preferred Citation:

Isabel Pedro material, 1946, 1962, 2021, Ms. Coll. 1784, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1946, 1962, 2021 (inclusive)

Creator:

Pedro, Isabel, 1934-2023

Form:

Correspondence, workbooks, and Autograph albums

Abstract:

This collection contains a primary school workbook, autograph book, letters and a book documenting the early life and subsequent path of Isabel Pedro (1934-2023), a multilingual Uruguayan-born Israeli operative later linked to Mossad intelligence activities.

Isabel Pedro was born in in 1934 in Montevideo, Uruguay to Isaac Pedro and Eugenia Malewiak, members of a diasporic Jewish family whose lineage traces from Toledo to Poland and subsequently to Palestine and Uruguay. Her father, a founding member of Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha and a former Poale Zion activist, emigrated to Uruguay in the interwar period. Pedro received her early education at the Escuela Gran Bretaña in the Cerrito de la Victoria district, part of Uruguay's progressive Varelian public education system.

She later pursued studies in architecture and fine arts in Montevideo and was active in Zionist youth movements. A marriage contracted in 1953 ended in separation, but legal constraints delayed her divorce for seven years, postponing her emigration to Israel until the early 1960s. Upon arrival, she undertook studies in interior architecture at the Technion (Tel Aviv branch) while maintaining regular correspondence with her family in Uruguay.

According to later accounts, Pedro was recruited into Israeli intelligence in the early 1960s, reportedly under the direction of Yitzhak Shamir. She was tasked with operating in Egypt under cultural and archaeological pretexts, integrating into elite circles during the Nasser period. She is described as part of a cohort of female operatives sometimes referred to as "Mossad Amazons."

After her intelligence service, Pedro returned to civilian life in Israel, working as an interior designer and painter. She later married Ben Ami Kaplan, an Irgun veteran, and had two children. She died in 2023.

The collection contains twelve letters written in a combination of Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, and occasional German, sent to Pedro by her parents in Uruguay during her early years in Israel.

The workbook documents a complete academic year of primary school studies (possibly 6th grade) in 1946, extensively filled with handwritten coursework and illustrated throughout with original student drawings. Accompanied by a three-page autograph book containing inscriptions, notes, and signatures, presumably contributed by classmates.

Also included is a copy of Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal's book, The Mossad Amazons published in 2021, which contains a chapter on Pedro.