Arturo Toscanini Arrives in the Land of Israel
Arturo Toscanini, considered to be one of the finest virtuoso conductors of the 20th century, arrives at Lod airport after being asked to conduct the opening performance of the Palestine Philharmonic.
Actress Haya Harareet Is Born
September 20, 1931 Actress Haya Harareet, best known as Judah Ben-Hur’s love interest Esther in the 1959 remake of “Ben-Hur,” is born Haya Neuberg in Haifa to Polish immigrants who arrived in Mandatory Palestine when…
Playwright Nissim Aloni Is Born
August 24, 1926 Playwright and translator Nissim Aloni is born Nissim Levi to poor Bulgarian Jewish parents in Florentin, a low-income neighborhood in the south of Tel Aviv that becomes an inspiration for his work….
Israeli Film Pioneer Lia Van Leer Is Born
A pioneer in Israeli film, Lia Van Leer is born Lia Greenberg in Beltsy, Romania (today Moldova).
Actress Hanna Maron Is Born
November 22, 1923 Hannele Meierzak, who as Hanna Maron becomes known as “the first lady of Israeli theater,” is born in Berlin. As a child, she appears in many plays and films, including an uncredited…
Opera Launched in Palestine
July 28, 1923 Mordechai Golinkin’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” marks the beginning of opera in Mandatory Palestine. Because Palestine has no opera house, the performance is in a movie theater. Golinkin, who wrote…
Composer Leonard Bernstein Is Born
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Ukrainian-Jewish parents, Leonard Bernstein is one of the most prolific composers and conductors in American history.
Actor Meir Margalit Is Born
May 3, 1906 Stage actor Meir Margalit, a winner of the Israel Prize in 1964, is born in Ostroleka, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. Margalit begins acting in local plays at age 13….
Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts Opens
The first forty students, all women, enroll in the newly established Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem.
Israel Museum Founder Eliyahu Dobkin Is Born
December 31, 1898 Eliyahu Dobkin, a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Israel Museum, is born in Bobruysk, Belarus. Dobkin is raised in a religious Zionist family. His father,…
Painter Nachum Gutman Born
Painter Nachum Gutman is born in a part of Russia that is now Moldova.
Dada Artist Marcel Janco Is Born
May 24, 1895 Marcel Janco, a founder of the Dada movement and a major influence on modern Israeli art, is born into a wealthy family outside the Jewish quarter of Bucharest, Romania. Trained at the…
Artist Reuven Rubin Is Born
Reuven Rubin (born Rubin Zelicovici), one of Israel’s most acclaimed painters, is born in Galatz, Romania. Rubin’s family was both very poor and religious.
Artist Yosef Zaritsky Is Born
September 1, 1891 Yosef Zaritsky, one of Israel’s most renowned painters, is born near Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Zaritsky studies at the Academy of Art in Kyiv and lives in Moscow before making aliyah…
Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz Is Born
August 22, 1891 Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, whose final work, “The Tree of Life,” stands outside Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, is born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz in Lithuania. Though his father wants him to…
Filmmaker Ya’acov Ben-Dov Born
June 21, 1882 Israeli filmmaker and photographer Ya’acov Ben-Dov is born in Yekatermoslav, Ukraine. He joins the movement for the revival of the Hebrew language in his teens, and he studies photography at the Kiev…
