New Shekel Is Introduced
September 4, 1985 The new Israeli shekel is introduced as the currency of the state. The original shekel, named for a biblical currency, came into use in 1980 as a replacement for the Israeli pound,…
Bank of Israel Founder Dies
August 10, 1979 Economist David Horowitz, the founder of the Bank of Israel, dies at age 80. Horowitz was born in 1899 in Galicia, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now in western Ukraine. He…
Israel, U.S. Sign Economic Pact
A wide-ranging agreement on expanded economic cooperation provides short term relief to Israel’s struggling economy.
OPEC Lifts Oil Embargo Against U.S.
March 18, 1974 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Arab oil producers, lifts the oil embargo it had placed on the United States for resupplying Israel during the Yom Kippur War. OPEC also…
Israel Fourth in First Eurovision Bid
April 7, 1973 Israel’s first-ever entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, Ilanit with the song “Ey-sham,” finishes fourth out of 17 nations, while host country Luxembourg wins for the second consecutive year. The music…
Black Panthers Steal, Distribute Milk
March 14, 1972 Israel’s Black Panthers, a social justice group that seeks equality for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, steal crates of milk meant for wealthy Jerusalem neighborhoods and hand them out across poor neighborhoods to…
First El Al Flight Departs for London and New York
After several days of training and an official dedication by Prime Minister Golda Meir, the first El Al flight, using a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, departs from Lod Airport for London and New York.
Israeli TV Goes on Air
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…
Physicist Giulio Racah Dies
August 28, 1965 Physicist Giulio Racah, a winner of the Israel Prize, dies at age 56 during a visit to Florence, Italy. The cause of death is believed to be asphyxiation by a faulty gas…
Spy Eli Cohen Executed
May 18, 1965 Eli Cohen is hanged in Marjeh Square in Damascus after being convicted of spying for Israel and being sentenced to death March 31, 1965. Cohen was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1924…
Jerusalem’s New Reservoir Is Opened
The 2½-year year project culminates with the opening of a water reservoir for Jerusalem at Bayit Vegan.
Backdated Signature Facilitates Nuclear Program
September 30, 1957 French Prime Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury backdates to today his signature on a letter granting Israel’s request for France’s cooperation in building a heavy-water nuclear reactor and reprocessing facility. He actually signs the…
Eliezer Hoofien Passes Away
Serving in various financial positions, Eliezer Siegfried Hoofien provided the Yishuv and then Israel with nearly fifty years of banking and financial expertise.
Merger Forms Tel Aviv University
June 6, 1956 The Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics merges with the Municipal Institute of Natural Sciences and Humanities to form Tel Aviv University, which soon also incorporates the Academic Institute of Jewish…
Knesset Establishes Bank of Israel
The Knesset passes the Bank of Israel Law by a vote of fifty-five to zero with fourteen abstentions. The new law, which goes into effect on December 1, 1954, establishes the Bank of Israel as the central financial authority for the country.
First Israel Bonds Mission Begins
“The Development Corporation of Israel” (known today as “Israel Bonds”) offers American Jews the opportunity to invest in Israel by purchasing bonds.
Hadassah Medical Center Breaks Ground
June 5, 1952 Having been forced to evacuate its campus on Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus after the massacre of 78 medical people April 13, 1948, Hadassah breaks ground on the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center at…
David Ben-Gurion Visits Tennessee Valley Authority Projects
Ben-Gurion’s trip, the first visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to the US, includes a tour of hydroelectric and water projects in Tennessee and Alabama.
El Al Is Founded
El Al, Israel’s national airline is officially founded and legally incorporated. On September 29, 1948, Chaim Weizmann was abroad in Geneva, where he had undergone an eye operation. Due to an embargo placed on Israel and other combatants in the 1948 War, Israel was not able to use a military plane to retrieve Weizmann and bring them to Israel. An Israeli Air Force DC-4 plane was painted and rebranded as “El-Al Ltd. – Israel National Aviation Company.” The plane was sent to Geneva to pick up Weizmann and his wife, where they brought them to Israel so that Weizmann could be sworn as Israel’s first President.
Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover Born
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Aaron Ciechanover is born in Haifa to parents who emigrated from Poland before World War II.
Labor Zionist Leader Berl Katznelson Dies
Berl Katznelson, a leader in the Labor Zionist movement, dies suddenly at the age of 57 in Jerusalem. His advocacy for the creation of a labor-based society in Israel would eventually form the basis of the Mapai party, which was created in 1930 and would dominate Israeli politics until the late 1970′s.
Rambam Hospital Is Established
December 22, 1938 The Rambam Health Care Campus opens as the British Government Hospital of Haifa and is hailed by the British high commissioner for Palestine, Harold MacMichael, as the “finest medical institution in the…
Mosul-Haifa Pipeline Opens
The Mosul-Haifa pipeline, which spans 590 miles, connects the Mosul oil fields and the Mediterranean Sea. It begins in Kirkuk, Iraq and ends in Haifa.
Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman Born
March 5, 1934 Israeli-American behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman is born in Tel Aviv while his mother is visiting relatives. He spends his early childhood in Paris and is there when the Nazis defeat France in…
