Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

In 1933, Yehuda Arazi served as a Police Commissioner, and investigating officer in the murder of Chaim Arlosoroff.

Yehuda Arazi served as Head of Arms Procurement Department, for Mossad leAliyah Bet.
From 1945 to 1948, Yehuda Arazi served as commander of Italy “station”, and was involved in the La Spezia Affair.

Ricky-Dale Calhoun cites: "Kollek, who was a relatively low-level Haganah field operative at the time, may not have had detailed knowledge of
the high-level circle around Sonneborn, or he may have sought to preserve the secret of its members’ identities when writing his memoirs."

Teddy Kollek cites: "My work touched on weapon production . . . speculations on ship purchases; dealings with factories and junkyards; liaison with spies, mobsters, movie moguls, statesmen, bankers, professors, industrialists, and newspaper men; and no lack of illegalities, from petty to international. . . . Deals were made with South American governments to buy tanks and innumerable other things and ship them on to Palestine."

Ricky-Dale Calhoun cites : "Kollek described his job as that of a harried organizer and coordinator. The principal—or at least the most audacious—buyer-operative in the field was Yehuda Arazi, described as a flamboyant risk-taker who used multiple aliases (Yehuda Alon, Joseph Tannenbaum, Jos´e de Paz, Rabbi Lefkowitch, Dr. Schwartz, Mr. Oppenheim, Albert Miller) and who had been active smuggling arms for the Haganah into Palestine from Europe since 1938. Although Arazi made several major arms purchases, his main value to the Hotel Fourteen effort seems to have been his knowledge of the world arms trade and his contacts, one of whom was Count Stefan Czarnecki, a Polish arms dealer with whom Arazi had done business in Europe before World War II. Another Arazi associate was Leonard Weisman, who was probably a member of the Sonneborn group. Weisman was a 34-year-old from Pittsburgh who had made a fortune in scrap metals and construction materials. His businesses included Materials Redistribution Company, a firm that dealt in scrap machinery; Paragon Design and Development Corporation, a company that traded in building materials; and Pratt Steamship Lines. A fourth Weisman company, Foundry Associates, Inc., existed only on paper. All assisted in the purchase and illegal export of arms from the United States."

In 1947, David Ben Gurion expanded the Haganah הגנה's arms acquisition system, sending Yehuda Arazi, Ehud Avriel and Munia Mardur abroad to find arms sources and to arrange shipmens to Palestine.
Each of them was given his own budget, and operated independently, reporting directly to David Ben Gurion.

Teddy Kollek met with a friends at the Hotel Fourteen, searching for someone wealthy enough and willing to help, and Joseph Shulman said he knew William Levitt, who was mass-producing houses in Levittown, and arranged a meeting between Kollek and Levitt at his offices on Northern Boulevard, in Manhasset.
Teddy Kollek cites: he told William Levitt "We need money. I can't tell you what it's for. But if you'll lend us the money the provisional government of the State of Israel will give you a note and pay you back in a year."
Teddy Kollek asked for a million dollars, offering no collateral, no interest, and no certainty that the money would ever be returned, and William Levitt gave him the money on the spot.

In 1948, Yehuda Arazi became a private businessman, in tourism and hotel industry.