Writer Netiva Ben Yehuda Is BornCIE+
July 26, 1928 Netiva Ben Yehuda, a Palmach member, early Israeli feminist, acclaimed writer and media personality, is born in Tel Aviv to a father from Lithuania and a mother from Ukraine. She has two…
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….
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda DiesCIE+
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, considered the “father of modern Hebrew,” dies from tuberculosis at the age of 64 in Jerusalem. Thirty thousand mourners attend his funeral on the Mount of Olives.
Hebrew ‘Dybbuk’ Opens in MoscowCIE+
The predecessor of the Habimah Theater opens a Hebrew version of the classic Yiddish play “The Dybbuk” in Moscow.
Writer Yosef Haim Brenner Is Killed
Yosef Haim Brenner, a pioneer of Modern Hebrew Literature, is murdered by an Arab gang during the 1921 Jaffa Riots.
Yishuv Publishes Its First Medical Journal: HarefuahCIE+
The first Hebrew language medical journal in Palestine, “HaRufuah,” is published quarterly by the Jewish Medical Association of Palestine. The journal is still published monthly by the Israel Medical Association and distributed to all its members free of charge.
Amir Gilboa Is BornCIE+
Amir Gilboa, born Berl Feldmann in the Ukraine, is one of Israel’s leading poets. He is known for drawing upon his military experiences and biblical issues of morality to write contemplative poems.
Poet Zelda Is BornCIE+
Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky (known simply as “Zelda”), one of the most widely acclaimed and beloved Israeli poets, is born in Russia.
Technion Decides to Teach in HebrewCIE+
An important moment in Israel’s nation-building comes when the Kuratorium (board of trustees) of the Technion University, then under construction in Haifa, reverses its decision of October 1913 and decides that Hebrew, not German, will be the language of instruction at the new school.
Poet Leah Goldberg Is BornCIE+
May 29, 1911 Poet Leah Goldberg is born in Königsberg, Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia. Raised mostly in Kovno, Lithuania, Goldberg begins writing poetry in Hebrew and Russian around age 12. She studies at the Universities…
Writer Natan Alterman Is BornCIE+
August 14, 1910 Natan Alterman, a poet, journalist, translator, author and playwright, is born in Warsaw. He moves to Tel Aviv with his family in 1925. He studies agriculture in France and briefly works at…
Children’s Author Miriam Roth BornCIE+
February 16, 1910 Miriam Roth, whose Hebrew writing elevates children’s literature in Israel, is born in the Slovakian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She attends various Jewish schools, including one run by her father, and…
Linguist Ze’ev Ben-Chaim Is BornCIE+
December 28, 1907 Linguistic scholar Ze’ev Ben-Chaim is born in Mosciska, Galicia, in present-day Ukraine. Ben-Chaim is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of Hebrew and Aramaic. His research revolves around the Samaritans’ language,…
Scholar Nechama Leibowitz Is BornCIE+
September 3, 1905 Scholar, teacher and biblical commentator Nechama Leibowitz is born in Riga, Latvia, where she grows up competing with her brother, future Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, in their father’s Bible quizzes. The family…
Painter Nachum Gutman BornCIE+
Painter Nachum Gutman is born in a part of Russia that is now Moldova.
Zola Writes ‘J’Accuse’ LetterCIE+
January 13, 1898 Influential French writer Emile Zola publishes an open letter to French President Felix Faure under the headline “J’Accuse” (“I Accuse”), charging Faure and the French government with antisemitism in the Dreyfus Affair….
Gershom Scholem Is BornCIE+
Gershom Scholem, the pre-eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, is born in Berlin. He immigrates to the Land of Israel in 1923.
Nobel Prize-Winning Author Shmuel Yosef Agnon Is BornCIE+
Born in 1888 in Buczacz, Galicia (later part of Ukraine), Shmuel Agnon is the first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only Hebrew writer to receive this award in literature.
Writer Ben-Gavriel Is BornCIE+
September 15, 1891 Austrian-Israeli writer Moshe Yaacov Ben-Gavriel is born Eugen Hoeflich in Vienna, Austria. He begins writing at a young age in German, particularly in the expressionist style. He serves as an officer in…
Rachel Bluwstein Is BornCIE+
Rachel Bluwstein, born in Russia, makes Aliyah in 1909. Bluwstein is considered the “founding mother” of modern Hebrew poetry and is one of the first modern Hebrew poets to write in a conversational style.
Writer Yitzhaq Shami Is BornCIE+
August 4, 1888 Yitzhaq Shami, one of the earliest writers of modern Hebrew literature, is born as Yitzhaq Sarwi to an Arabic-speaking father and a Ladino-speaking mother in Hebron. He takes the name Shami, first…
Writer Peretz Smolenskin DiesCIE+
February 1, 1885 Russian Jewish novelist, editor and early Zionist Peretz Smolenskin dies of tuberculosis at 43 in Italy. Smolenskin was born in the Mogilev province of White Russia in 1842 and had a traditional…
Literary Pioneer Yosef Haim Brenner Is BornCIE+
September 11, 1881 Yosef Haim Brenner, the leading Israeli literary figure of the early 20th century, is born in Novi Mlini, Ukraine. He grows up receiving a Jewish education and joins the Bund, a Jewish…
Philosopher Martin Buber Is BornCIE+
Renowned philosopher Martin Buber is born in Vienna. Buber emigrates to Jerusalem in 1938.
