Levanon and his family then moved to Moscow, where he disguised his covert activities by working as an agricultural attaché in the Israeli embassy. He told friend Richard Perle in 1970, "The Soviets thought I was interested in raising potatoes. I was interested in raising Jews." For two years, he met with Soviet Jews to pass along information, prayer books, and pictures of Israel. In 1956, however, he and two other Israeli diplomats were declared "persona non grata" for their ties to the Soviet Jewish community.