These 75 people helped establish the foundations for a Jewish state in the Land of Israel between the start of the 19th century and independence in 1948. Those involved in the work of Zionism in the first half of the 20th century who went on to be important leaders of the State of Israel appear on our separate list of essential Israelis from history. We also have a list of current Israelis you should know and non-Israelis who helped shape Israel.

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Aaron Aaronsohn

Sarah Aaronsohn

Gershon Agronsky

Rabbi Judah Alkalai

Chaim Arlosoroff

Yocheved Bat-Miriam

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Chaim Nahman Bialik

Elisheva Bikhovsky

Nathan Birnbaum

Rachel Bluwstein

Max Bodenheimer

Dov Ber Borochov

Yosef Haim Brenner

Selig Brodetsky

Meir Dizengoff

Itzhak Elazari-Volcani

Akiva Ettinger

Berthold Feiwel

Israel Friedlander

Eliyahu Golomb

A.D. Gordon

Emma Gottheil

Dov Gruner

Ahad Ha’am (Asher Ginsberg)

Rose Luria Halprin

Yehoshua Hankin

Theodor Herzl

Moses Hess

Bronislaw Huberman

Naftali Herz Imber

Ze’ev Jabotinsky

Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer

Berl Katznelson

Frederick “Frank” Kisch

Joseph Klausner

Rav Abraham Isaac Kook

Yehudah Leib Levin

Ephraim Moses Lilien

Rabbi Moshe Leib Lilienblum

Judah Magnes

Hannah Maisel-Shohat

Haim Margalit-Kalvarisky

Rabbi Samuel Mohilever

Moses Montefiore

Leo Motzkin

Max Nordau

Leon Pinsker

Roza Pomerantz-Meltzer

Esther Raab

Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines

Baron Edmond James de Rothschild

Alexander Rubowitz

Arthur Ruppin

Pinhas Rutenberg

Myriam Schach

Rabbi Zvi Hermann Schapira

Boris Schatz

Hannah Senesh

Enzo Sereni

Moshe Smilansky

Peretz Smolenskin

Nahum Sokolow

Avraham Stern

Nahum (Nachman) Syrkin

Henrietta Szold

Shaul Tchernichovsky

Jacob Thon

Joseph Trumpeldor

Yechiel Tschlenow

Menachem Ussishkin

Orde Wingate

David Wolffsohn

David Yellin

Israel Zangwill