In 1949 he immigrated to the newly established state of Israel, where he Hebraized his surname to Bartov. He settled in Jerusalem, and was appointed chief secretary in the bureau of Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel. In 1952, he was appointed head of bureau for the second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. In 1959 he graduated law school at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in 1960 acquired his Master of Laws. After qualifying as lawyer in 1961, he was appointed by President Ben-Zvi as his legal advisor.
From 1986 to 1992 he was head of Nativ – the Israeli liaison organization for maintaining contact with the Jews living in the Eastern Bloc. From 1992 to 1994 he headed the Nativ mission to the former Soviet Union countries, based in Moscow. After retirement, he continued with voluntary work for the benefit of former Soviet Union jewry, and from 1997 to 2003 was Chairman of the Executive Committee of Yad Ben Zvi research institute.