He was raised Jewish, albeit in a secular home in the Jezreel Valley kibbutz of Ramat David and was not familiar with Shabbat candles until he saw them as an adult.
His mother's unwillingness to discuss her Holocaust experiences is often alluded to, and that it is a critical part of what makes Allon such a natural spy and master of secrets.
[1] It is mentioned that Allon remembers him as a gentle, kind father who never struck him, except on the one occasion when Gabriel continually pressed him to talk about his experiences in the Holocaust.
"[3] Several books in the series make reference to Allon's linguistic versatility, and it is confirmed that he speaks fluent English, French, German, Hebrew, and Italian as well passable Arabic and Spanish.
[4] Allon's maternal grandfather, the fictional Viktor Frankel, was a well-known Berlin-based German Expressionist painter who is said to have been a disciple of the real-life Max Beckmann and who passed his talents on to his daughter (Gabriel's mother) before he was killed at Auschwitz in January 1943.
[6] Allon felt he had to make peace with Leah's situation before he could propose to, or marry, Chiara, the Italian-born Office field operative who later becomes his second wife.
However some titles, for example Moscow Rules (2008) and The Defector (2009), take place within greater proximity to one another based on the books' events; the beginning of Portrait of a Spy (2011) actually recaps the last section of The Rembrandt Affair (2010).
While names are changed in the book, the fallout from the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul is key to the plot of The New Girl.
Eventually after the departure of two of his successors, he makes Uzi Navot the director general of the Office after finally giving up trying to perpetually force Gabriel to take the job (who repeatedly refused to accept the position).
However, in an interview, Silva said that Shamron is a composite of several historical figures including Isser Harel, head of Mossad when Eichmann was apprehended.
[10] After what happened to his first wife, Leah, and son, Dani, he wasn't sure he could ever allow himself fall in love with another woman, and it took several years (and the light but unending pressure and reminding of Shamron and Gilah) for him to be willing to marry Chiara.
Brash, with a dry wit and roguish charm, he is widely respected both in Israel and by his foreign counterparts as an exceptionally competent field officer and successful director general, but lacking Gabriel's legendary accomplishments, nerve and aura.
Uzi's appetite and fluctuating weight is regularly mentioned as a problem for him, as well as Bella's unremitting monitoring and occasional verbal scolding of him for it, much to the amusement of other characters.
Gabriel considers him the closest thing he has to a brother (alongside Eli Lavon), and after his wife Chiara and Ari Shamron, is probably the series' most prominent secondary protagonist.
Their history together dates back to Gabriel Allon's first mission, Operation Wrath of God, for which Lavon was an ayin, a tracker and surveillance specialist.
After the Wrath of God operation he resigned from the Office and moved to Vienna, where until the bombing at the beginning of the 4th novel, he was the director of a very successful Holocaust restitution research and investigative agency named the Bureau of Wartime Claims and Inquiries.
Yaakov Rossman — an longtime case officer in Shabak's Arab Affairs department, running agents and sources inside the West Bank and Gaza.
Dark-haired with pockmarked cheeks, he plays a prominent role in most of Gabriel's field operations, usually present while conducting surveillance, armed assaults as well as kidnappings.
Born and raised in London, Gavish read classics at All Souls College at Oxford, speaks four languages, including Hebrew with a pronounced British accent.
Tweedy, witty, and still somewhat more British than Israeli in personality, he known to have his tea specially shipped to Israel from New Bond Street in London on a regular basis.
She part of the assorted group that comprises Gabriel's Barak team that assembles on short notice in response to occurrences of terrorist attacks and operations.
Leah Allon (née Savir) — Gabriel's first wife, an exceptionally talented artist, she was severely wounded and left with permanent burns inflicted during the Vienna car bomb attack in January 1991 that killed their son, Dani.
Other than for brief instances of lucidity, a combination of severe post-traumatic stress and depression has left her incapacitated with her mind permanently replaying the events leading up to the Vienna bombing.
Julian Isherwood — born Isakowitz, the son of a Jewish Parisian art dealer, he was smuggled out of France before the Nazis killed his father.
Was recruited as a sayan by Shamron in the mid-1970s for one very specific purpose: to facilitate and maintain the identity of Mario Delvecchio, a Cornwall-based Italian expatriate art restorer of Old Masters paintings; in reality the operational cover of Office assassin Gabriel Allon.
After British Prime Minister Jonathan Lancaster's mistress Madeline Hart is kidnapped and vanishes, he turns to Seymour for help, who entrusts Gabriel with the task of investigating.
The daughter of a wealthy Citibank executive, she spent most of her early years being educated at the finest boarding schools throughout western Europe, returning to the States to attend university.
When Carter arranges for Gabriel to meet her during The Messenger as a prospective candidate for an assignment in a joint US-Israeli deep cover operation, she was working as a curator at the Phillips Collection in Washington.
The success of their joint operations against ISIS in The Black Widow and House of Spies is said in the later books to have all but eliminated the decades-long mistrust and suspicion within the French security establishment towards Israel.
First appearing in The Fallen Angel as the head of the counterterrorist division of the DAP (later known as the NDB, Switzerland's small but capable security and intelligence service) later becoming its chief of domestic operations.