Third Tel-Aviv International Student Film Festival Takes PlaceCIE+
The biennial Tel-Aviv International Student Film Festival film festival includes a future Oscar winner among its student films.
Israeli Supermodel Bar Refaeli Is Born in Hod HasharonCIE+
Known internationally for her beauty and business savvy, Bar Refaeli has lead modeling campaigns for major brands such as Gap and Samsung, and has one of the most recognizable faces in the fashion industry.
First International Festival of Jewish Theater ConvenesCIE+
The First International Conference and Festival of Jewish Theater opens in Tel Aviv. The festival coincides with the beginning of the first war in Lebanon and is almost canceled because many Israeli participants were called up for reserve duty.
Actress Hanna Rovina DiesCIE+
February 3, 1980 Acclaimed actress Hanna Rovina dies in Ra’anana at age 91. Her body lies in state the next day at the Habima Theatre, and she is eulogized by Shimon Finkel as “the high…
Opera Star Edis De Philippe DiesCIE+
July 5, 1979 Israel National Opera Company founder Edis De Philippe dies at age 67 after brain surgery. A New York native, De Philippe studied music, ballet and half a dozen languages before committing to…
Channel 1 Starts BroadcastingCIE+
May 2, 1968 Israel’s first general-interest television network begins broadcasting at 9:30 a.m. with an image of a menorah, followed by an aerial view of Jerusalem and, at 9:40, the national Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day)…
Israeli TV Goes on AirCIE+
March 24, 1966 An instructional program in math, geared toward seventh- and ninth-graders in 32 schools in the middle of the country, becomes Israel’s first television broadcast. The Israeli government has viewed television as a…
All-Time Miss Israel Illana Shoshan Is Born
April 14, 1961 Illana Shoshan, who wins the 1980 Miss Israel title after finishing second in the 1978 teen pageant, is born in Kfar Saba, Israel. In a public vote held in 2010 to celebrate…
Filmmaker Amos Gitai Born in HaifaCIE+
Filmmaker Amos Gitai, known for documentaries and features on the Middle East, the Israeli-Arab conflict and Holocaust memory in Europe, is born to architect Munio Weinraub and teacher Efratia Margalit in Haifa.
Cinema Director Alon Garbuz Is BornCIE+
September 9, 1948 Alon Garbuz, the director of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque for four decades, is born in Givatayim, the youngest of three brothers. The oldest, Aharon, becomes a leader in the Histadrut labor federation…
LGBTQ Leader Gila Goldstein Is BornCIE+
December 18, 1947 Actress, singer and transgender-rights activist Gila Goldstein is born as Abraham Goldstein in Turin, Italy. Goldstein immigrates to Haifa as a child and is active with the Maccabi Haifa soccer club. Goldstein…
Actress Gila Almagor Is BornCIE+
July 22, 1939 Gila Almagor, known as the “queen of the Israeli cinema and theater,” is born as Gila Alexandrowitz in Haifa four months after an Arab sniper killed her father, a policeman who immigrated…
Actress Haya Harareet Is BornCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 BornCIE+
A pioneer in Israeli film, Lia Van Leer is born Lia Greenberg in Beltsy, Romania (today Moldova).
Actress Hanna Maron Is BornCIE+
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 PalestineCIE+
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…
Actor Meir Margalit Is BornCIE+
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….
Filmmaker Ya’acov Ben-Dov BornCIE+
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…
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