In fact, Barkan served as Israel’s top envoy to an area stretching from Alaska to Montana to Modesto at one of the Jewish state’s most tumultuous periods ever.
But for the veteran diplomat, who has served in such hot spots as Cairo and Washington, this time in San Francisco offered nothing more than a “different challenge.”
Evolving Mideast realities have simply brought a return to what Barkan calls a “pattern” of 1980s-style public relations.
“During the great heyday of peace, the target was the American Jewish community. In the last few months, we’ve been working with Jews to make Israel’s case to the American public,” he said recently in his Montgomery Street office.
“The nature of the message and the nature of the target audience has changed.”
His mission, he added, has moved “back to defending Israel’s case — which is not necessarily acceptable to everyone in the United States.”
Yet since arriving in San Francisco in August 1995, Barkan, 45, has proven to be the quintessential Israeli presence: cool and unflappable, a political and cultural voice for the Jewish state.
It was a voice that echoed deeply throughout the Bay Area.
“He really shows what professional diplomacy can mean,” said Naomi Lauter, American Israel Public Affairs Committee regional director.
Barkan’s standard operating procedure meant he was available to many, offered regular political updates on Israel, and marked his work with a characteristically Israeli flavor.
“Nimrod has distinguished himself in a trying time for Israel with timely and accurate briefings, total accessibility and a wonderful sense of humor,” said Wayne Feinstein, executive vice president of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
Barkan, added Lauter, “loves Israel passionately, but he has a very cynical side to his personality and an incredible sense of humor.”
Working with the Bay Area’s generally liberal and diffused Jewish community presented no special challenge, Barkan insists.
“The essence of the work done by a consul is no different [in San Francisco] than in Chicago or Philadelphia,” where he was a consul in the 1980s.
When Barkan arrived here, his goal was threefold: to build political relationships with members of Congress and the state senate, to maintain close ties to Jewish activists and to work the media.
At the same time, Barkan showed off Israel’s cultural strengths. He tried to appeal to sophisticated tastes with such events as a chamber music series, and to younger Jews with shows by such Israeli pop stars as David Broza, Noa and Danny Sanderson.
But Lauter said Barkan brought something else to his job — political savvy. Barkan was a senior negotiator with Egypt and was stationed in Cairo in the 1980s, taught the history of international relations at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and in 1990 joined Israel’s National Defense College.
He was a keen student of American history who “really understood our political system, and so is a real value to Israel,” Lauter said.
Those who worked with Barkan also praised him as a great communicator. Lauter said Barkan kept a promise to attend every single AIPAC meeting, and discussed the U.S.-Israel relationship with her daily.
Such follow-through was typical Barkan.
“Everybody thought he belonged to them,” Lauter said. “He has people all over the country that think of themselves as his close friend.”
Barkan, she added, “is going to be missed.”
Barkan said he has yet to finalize his plans for the future.