In 1933, when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, he escaped to France, where he studied at an agricultural school in Toulouse, and in 1934, he made aliyah to Palestine, where he was one of the founders of kibbutz HaZore'a.

He was later sent to Europe on missions to help illegally smuggle European Jews into Palestine, in defiance of British immigration restrictions.

In 1940, he was sent to Rhodes by the Haganah to negotiate with a representative of Adolf Eichmann for the transfer of German Jews to Palestine.

Rafael married Nurit Weissberg, and the couple had a son, Amnon, and two daughters, Michal and Ruth.

[4] In 1953, he returned to Israel, and was in charge of United Nations and Middle Eastern affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry until 1957.

[1] In 1957, he was appointed Israel's ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, and permanent observer in European and UN institutions in Geneva.