Jews always have bound themselves together by committing to Torah values, taking care of one another, adapting to new settings, coping with persistently precarious living environments, and finding leaders who looked past immediate obstacles to see beyond the horizon — from Moses to Ben-Gurion, Weizmann, Begin, Meir and others. A training ground for Jewish state leaders emerged from centuries of surviving as minorities in ghettos, kehillot, millets and other groupings around the world. Before 19th century immigration to Palestine relinked Jews to their ancient land to engage in state-seeking, state-making and state-keeping, Jewish leadership skills were defined and honed. Since Theodor Herzl’s founding of the modern political Zionist movement in 1897, Zionist and Israeli leaders have displayed vision, formulated policies, innovated on political and military battlefields, and made compromises to go from Kiddush to Kiddush without too much Kaddish in between.
Jewish, Zionist and Israeli leadership has not been without clashes between ideologies and their proponents. Yet, under an umbrella of taking care of one another, despite differences on pathways to be taken and compromises to be made, perseverance survived multiple mistakes.
A case in point: Looking over the Jewish political reality in the late 1930s, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency in Palestine, decided Britain was weakening as the power and influence of the United States grew. He understood that vast numbers of Jews in America needed to be persuaded to support political Zionism. From 1939 to 1945, he spent almost half his time convincing American Jews of the need for a Jewish state. Ben-Gurion’s look over the horizon, past the end of the brutal war, proved correct. The United States emerged, Great Britain retreated, and American Jewry became critical in the long-term support of the Jewish state.
To be sure, a vast stable of Zionist and Israeli leaders who never made it to the top of a political or military pyramid nonetheless led institutions, brigades, corporations, educational institutions, kibbutzim, religious communities and other entities. Despite many differences of opinion on strategies to move Jewish and Israeli interests forward, leaders persevered by promoting communal identity and the state’s well-being.
June 2025 CIE has compiled the following list of books and articles to guide understanding of leaders and leadership throughout Israeli history. Books Abrams, Dennis. Ehud Olmert: Modern World Leaders. New York: Chelsea House Publishers,…
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…
Though they may have played important roles in helping Israel achieve statehood, these 75 people deserve recognition for what they did after Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. Everyone on this list either…
It’s impossible to pick 75 people to represent all aspects of a state of more than 9 million people, let alone to pick the 75 most important or most influential people, but these diverse 75…
Many people, Jewish and non-Jewish, have played a part in the State of Israel’s creation, survival and development despite never themselves becoming Israeli. For good or bad, Israel would not be what it is today…
David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon would have faced up to the moment. Even though they did not share the same ideologies, they did share a common view of leadership and the role of the prime minister. First and foremost, they understood what was important. They never shied away from making painful decisions in which they put the state, not their political needs, first.
Jews always have bound themselves together by committing to Torah values, taking care of one another, adapting to new settings, coping with persistently precarious living environments, and finding leaders who looked past immediate obstacles to…
Emir Feisal, acting on behalf of Sherif of Mecca and Chaim Weizmann on behalf of the Zionist Organization exchange recognition of cordiality and kinship between a future Arab state and Palestine, where Zionists seek to establish their national home. Mutual assistance is offered by one of the other.
April 11, 1923 Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky (October 17, 1880-August 3, 1940) was a Russian-Jewish intellectual, writer, soldier and political activist who founded the Revisionist Zionist movement. A charismatic orator and prolific author, Jabotinsky broke with…
Former Knesset member Nachman Shai, who reported on and worked for the Israeli prime minister, reflects on what Israel and the world lost when he was assassinated.
How do Israeli leaders balance the demands of serving their state and protecting the Jewish People worldwide?
In New York, urging American (Jewish) support, Ben-Gurion proclaims the eventual establishment of a Jewish state.
The Status-Quo Agreement is an understanding reached between David Ben-Gurion, then the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, and the religious parties in the period before Israel became a state.
The Declaration recounts the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, the birth of Zionism and U.N. recognition of a Jewish state’s legitimacy. It also promises that the state will be a democracy for all its citizens.
Subsequent to Israel’s territorial successes from May 1948 forward, U.N. mediator Bernadotte is assassinated after suggesting smaller borders for Israel. He does not mention Palestinian Arabs in his interim report.
President Johnson’s remarks became the philosophical outline for UN Resolution 242 passed in November 1967. Core to his view was that Israel would not need to return to the pre-1967 war borders, and that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states in the region should be protected.
July 26, 1967: The Alon Plan reflects a response to Israel’s pre-1967 war border vulnerability seeking a future west bank arrangement that is not a strategic/geographic threat to Israel and its coastal plain population centers.
Sadat tells the Israeli people and world that he seeks a just and durable peace, which is not a separate peace, between Israel and Egypt. He equates statehood for the Palestinians as their right to return.
Our second animated white board video covers in detail what took place during the thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David in September 2018. The video begins with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s priority on getting back the Sinai Peninsula which Egypt lost to Israel in the June 1967 War and the origins of direct negotiations between Israel and Egypt following Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in November 1977.
He castigates PLO leader Arafat for support of terrorism and condemns Palestinian groups that “seek Israel’s destruction.” Bush suggests to Israel to support economically a viable Palestinian state.
June 3, 2018 As of December 2024, Amos Oz’s last speech, “The Whole Reckoning Is Not Over Yet,” has been translated from Hebrew into Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Dutch and published as a book…
The Leadership series is a biographical collection of ebooks on a diverse set of individuals who have influenced Israel’s history, politics, and culture. The first six ebooks in this series are: David Ben-Gurion, Shimon Peres, Golda Meir, Ilan Ramon, Netta Barzilai, and Naomi Shemer.
Abbas is a dentist who lives in the Galilee town of Maghar. Since 2019, he has served in the Knesset as the head of the Islamist party Ra’am. After Ra’am broke from the Joint List…
Singer-songwriter-musician Alberstein is a native of Poland who moved to Israel with her family in 1950. She has released more than 60 albums, recording in Hebrew, English and Yiddish, and is one of Israel’s most…
A major general since 2021, Alian is the highest-ranking Druze officer in the IDF. He commanded COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, during the 2023-2025 war with Hamas and thus oversaw aid…
Almog, a retired IDF major general, was unanimously nominated in June 2022 to serve a four-year term as the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, succeeding Isaac Herzog. A paratrooper, Almog was the first…
Born in Petah Tikvah to German Jewish immigrants, Almog is considered one of the most important writers in Hebrew literature. Trained as a teacher, she published her first story in 1967 and first novel, The…
A Tel Aviv native and entrepreneur, Arad is the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal, taking a silver in judo at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. She dedicated her medal to the 11 Israelis…
A native of Rishon LeZion, Ashram won gold in the rhythmic gymnastics all-around at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She also won the European all-around in 2020 and captured 11 world championship medals in her…
Aumann is an Israeli-American mathematician who shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics in 2005 for his game theory analysis of conflict and cooperation. His family escaped Germany two weeks before Kristallnacht. A Religious Zionist,…
Avdija, the son of an Israeli Jewish mother who was an athlete and a Kosovo-born Israeli Muslim who was a professional basketball player, is a small forward for the NBA’s Washington Wizards, who drafted him…
Avineri, a native of Poland, was one of Israel’s premier political scientists as a Hebrew University professor and wrote extensively on the history of political philosophy, including Marx, Engels, Hegel, Zionism, colonialism and the Soviet…
An Arab Christian from the Galilee, Awad is a star singer and actress. She was educated in Tel Aviv before moving to Tel Aviv. In 2009 she became the first Arab and Christian to represent…
As Israel’s 10th prime minister and last from the Labor Party from 1999 to 2001, Barak ended the occupation of southern Lebanon, participated in the 2000 Camp David talks, was rebuffed by Yasser Arafat in…
Barzilai, who performs mononymously as Netta, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 with “Toy,” making her the fourth Israeli victor. She first gained fame by winning Season 5 of reality competition “HaKokhav HaBa.” Barzilai’s…
Israel’s 13th prime minister, Bennett was born in Haifa to U.S. immigrants. He was an IDF Sayeret Matkal commando and a software entrepreneur. He became the leader of the settler-supported Jewish Home party in 2012…
A computer scientist and tech entrepreneur, Berry has been a driver of innovation and received Ben-Gurion University’s 2012 Yakirat Ha’Negev award for excellence in technology. In 1996 she became the first female chief scientist at…
New Jersey native Brody was a first-round NBA draft pick out of the University of Illinois in 1965, but after visiting Israel for the first time that summer for the Maccabiah Games, he decided to…
Haifa native Broza is one of Israel’s most successful and influential musicians, including Spanish-style guitar playing learned during his time in Madrid. His first hit was “Yihyeh Tov” (“It Will Be Good”) in 1977. He…
Casspi was the first Israeli-born first-round NBA draft pick and player. He made his professional basketball debut for Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005 at age 17. The Sacramento Kings drafted him 23rd overall in 2009,…
Ciechanover shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2004 with Israeli Avram Hershko and Jewish American Irwin Rose for showing the role of the protein ubiquitin in breaking down other proteins in cells. He was…
An Argentina native who moved to Israel at 15, Dayan founded the information technology company Elad Systems. He gained prominence as a leader of the Yesha Council, the organization of West Bank settlers. His role…
A Ukraine native who moved to Israel at 12, Dolgopyat won the artistic gymnastics gold medal for floor exercise at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. He also won gold in the event at the…
Elharrar became Israel’s minister of infrastructure, energy and water at the formation of the coalition government led by Naftali Bennett in 2021. She had been a member of the Knesset from the Yesh Atid party…
Farber studied the Talmud at Bar-Ilan University and graduated from the Midreshet Lindenbaum’s scholars program for women. Without the option to be an Orthodox rabbi, she uses the title rabbanit and advocates for more women…
Named one of CNN’s “10 Most Powerful Women in Tech” in 2010, Fassberg immigrated from South Africa in 1975, rose to become CEO of Intel Israel and retired in 2016 after 33 years with the…
Fridman was the first Israeli to win an Olympic gold medal, which he earned in windsurfing in Athens in 2004 after taking the bronze in Atlanta in 1996. He also was the first Israeli to…
Born in Rosh Haayin and crowned Miss Israel at 18, Gadot served in the military and became a model, singer and martial artist. She has emerged as one of the world’s most recognized actresses, first…
Gantz was a paratrooper who rose to serve as the chief of the IDF general staff from 2011 to 2015. He entered politics by launching Israel Resilience in late 2018, then merged it into Blue…
Gross is a physicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Searching for the Higgs boson, known as the “God particle,” Gross applied machine learning in particle physics to help develop the ATLAS detector. As a…
A Jerusalem native, Grossman is one of Israel’s most prolific and most acclaimed writers. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages. His 2017 novel, “A Horse Walks Into a Bar,” received the…
Hadad is one of Israel’s most popular singers. She was a 2002 Eurovision contestant and was Israeli Music TV’s Best Female Singer of the 2000s. She was a judge on “The Voice Israel” and was…
Singer and composer Hanoch is considered the father of Israeli rock and is known for poetic lyrics. Born on Kibbutz Mishmarot, he began writing songs at 14 and joined the army band during his military…
Hayut is the Israeli Supreme Court’s president, a post she is due to hold until October 2023. The Jerusalem Post says she could be Israel’s most influential chief justice since Aharon Barak by reasserting the…
A native of Hungary who immigrated to Israel in 1950, Hershko led the biochemistry department at the Technion. He and colleague Aaron Ciechanover became the first Israelis to win a Nobel Prize in the natural…
Herzog has served as the 11th president of Israel since July 2021. His father, Chaim Herzog, also served as president, and grandfather Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog was the chief rabbi of Ireland. A Tel Aviv native,…
International, whose real name is Sharon Cohen, is a pop singer and former drag performer. She became Israel’s third Eurovision Song Contest winner with “Diva” in 1998. She released her first album in 1993, the…
The first female speaker of the Knesset from 2006 to 2009, Itzik was a teacher who began her political career as the chair of the Jerusalem Teachers Union for five years. She was elected to…
Kahn is a tech and media entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and one of Israel’s richest men. A native of South Africa, he immigrated to Israel in 1956. He founded Amdocs, the Aurec Group, Golden Pages and…
Kahneman is an author and emeritus professor of behavioral psychology at Princeton who shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2002 for his work on prospect theory, which explores how people make decisions under…
A lifelong resident of the Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmel, Kamal-Mreeh in 2017 became the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a Hebrew-language news program on Israeli television. In 2019, as part of Blue and White,…
Kashua is a Palestinian-Israeli author and columnist born in Tira in Israel’s Arab Triangle. He attended the prestigious Israel Arts and Science Academy boarding school in Jerusalem. Writing mostly in Hebrew about being an outsider…
Born in Ramat Gan to Holocaust survivors from Poland, Keret is internationally renowned for quirky, darkly humorous short stories, novels and screenplays exploring such themes as love, death, morality and the meaning of life. His…
Kirel is a pop star and actress of Mizrahi and Ashkenazi ancestry who is Israel’s 2023 Eurovision contestant. She released her first songs at 14. She won the MTV Europe Music Award for best Israeli…
Landau is a Jerusalem-born artist who studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, then worked in the United States and United Kingdom. Her pieces are multimedia, including drawing, sculpture, video and performance. She…
Born in Tel Aviv, Lapid followed the path of his father, Tommy, in gaining fame as a journalist, then moving into politics with a vision for a secular government. Lapid worked for Channel 1 and…
The youngest survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Lau arrived in the Land of Israel with a brother in 1945. He was the chief rabbi of Netanya from 1978 to 1988 and of Tel Aviv…
A two-time foreign minister, Liberman was the finance minister in the coalition formed in June 2021. Born in Moldova, Liberman arrived in Israel in 1978. He worked closely with Benjamin Netanyahu before splitting with him…
A Petah Tikvah native and Tel Aviv resident, Michaeli became the transportation minister in the governing coalition formed in June 2021. She is credited with reinvigorating the Labor Party since becoming its leader at the…
Kiryat Gat native Nes is one of Israel’s most prominent photographers. He stages art photos to convey themes of masculinity and identity, often reflecting the influence of iconic artworks and his experiences growing up gay…
Netanyahu has served as the Likud leader for all but six years since 1993. He is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, holding the office from 1996 to 1999, 2009 to June 2021, and December 2022 to…
An Arab politician and lawyer from Haifa, Odeh has led the far-left Hadash party since 2015 and headed the Joint List, a coalition of Arab-majority parties, in elections in 2019, 2020 and 2021. He served…
Israel’s most successful tennis player, Pe’er won five singles and three doubles titles on the Women’s Tennis Association tour. Her highest world ranking was No. 11 in 2011. She reached the singles quarterfinals of two…
Perlman is an acclaimed violinist and conductor who was born in Tel Aviv, survived polio at age 4, and lives and teaches in New York. He has performed for U.S. presidents and British Queen Elizabeth…
London-born Plesner has served since 2014 as the president of the nonpartisan Israel Democracy Institute, which conducts polling and advocates for government reforms to strengthen democracy. He was in the Knesset from 2007 to 2013…
Jerusalem-born actress Portman made her film debut as the star of 1994’s “Leon: The Professional.” She won an Oscar for 2010’s “Black Swan” and was nominated for two others. Her directorial debut was the 2015…
Diplomat and historian Rabinovich is a former ambassador to the United States and former president of Tel Aviv University. A former IDF lieutenant colonel, he was Israel’s chief negotiator with Syria in the 1990s. His…
Regev has served in the Knesset since 2013 as a member of Likud. During a 25-year military career in IDF public relations, she rose to the rank of brigadier general in the reserves. Her roles…
The 10th president of Israel from 2014 to 2021, Rivlin was a Likud politician who served as the speaker of the Knesset from 2003 to 2006 and 2009 to 2013. As president, he pushed for…
Saban is a multibillionaire music, film and TV producer who founded Saban Entertainment, creator of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” A native of Egypt, he immigrated to Israel in 1956. He started a tour promotion business…
Sattath became the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel in November 2021 after 11 years leading the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center. The rabbi also served as the executive director…
Shaffir was the youngest-ever female member of the Knesset when she was elected with the Labor Party in 2013. She remained in the Knesset until 2020. She leads the Green Party. She rose to prominence…
Shai, a Labor Party member who served in the Knesset from 2009 to 2019, became the Diaspora affairs minister under Naftali Bennett in 2021. He was the IDF’s chief spokesman during the 1991 Persian Gulf…
An electrical engineer, Shaked in June 2021 became the interior minister under Naftali Bennett, her close ally as they have moved from the Jewish Home to the New Right and Yamina. She served in the…
Shimon Shamir was Israel’s first ambassador to Jordan and its second to Egypt. A scholar of the Middle East, he is a professor emeritus in the faculty of humanities at Tel Aviv University. He was…
Shapira is a historian of Zionism and modern Israel and a professor emerita at Tel Aviv University. Her books include 2012 National Jewish Book Award winner Israel: A History and biographies of Berl Katznelson, David…
Sharansky, a physicist and writer, was a Soviet refusenik imprisoned in a Siberian labor camp from 1977 to 1986. Upon his release, he joined his wife, Avital, in Israel. He became an activist for immigrant…
Tel Aviv native Shechtman won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2011 for his discovery of quasicrystals, which are crystals whose atoms are not organized in repeating patterns. A materials science professor at the Technion,…
A multiple James Beard Award winner who leads several Israeli-themed restaurants in Philadelphia and writes cookbooks, Solomonov was born in Israel and raised in Pittsburgh. He worked in a bakery when he returned to Israel…
One of Israel’s leading environmentalists, Tal is a member of the Knesset for Blue and White. A North Carolina native who made aliyah after college, he founded the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in 1996…
A lawyer and TV journalist, Tamano-Shata in 2013 became the first Ethiopian-born woman in the Knesset. She also is the first Ethiopian-born Cabinet member, serving as immigrant absorption minister since May 2020 under three prime…
Vital is an English-born historian of Zionism and diplomacy. His books include “The Origins of Zionism” and “A People Apart: A Political History of the Jews in Europe.” He worked in the Foreign Ministry and…
With Martin Karplus and Michael Levitt, Warshel was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2013. His work in computational chemistry applied classical mechanics and quantum mechanics to predict and model chemical reactions. He studied…
A dancer and choreographer, Wertheim is the artistic director of Vertigo Dance Company, founded with partner Adi Shaal in Jerusalem in 1992. They added a dance school in 1997 and in 2007 established the Vertigo…
Yitzhak, who moved to Israel at age 19, was the first Ethiopian immigrant to earn an Israeli medical degree, having started his studies in Ethiopia, and to serve as an IDF combat surgeon. He was…
Yonath is the first Israeli woman to receive a Nobel Prize, sharing the chemistry prize in 2009 for work on ribosomes, which are crucial proteins in cells. She used X-ray crystallography to map ribosomes’ structure,…
Zoabi serves as an Arab member of the Knesset for Meretz and deputy speaker and is an activist for Arab rights. Forbes named her one of Israel’s 50 most influential women in 2018. She was…
Known by the acronym Shai, Agnon became Israel’s first Nobel laureate when he received the literature prize in 1966. No other Hebrew writer has won the Nobel in literature. Born in Galicia, now part of…
A Jerusalem native, Alcalay was a lexicographer best known for his “The Complete Hebrew-English Dictionary,” which was popular for its colloquial style. He also wrote “The Hebrew Lexicon of Foreign Words and Phrases.” He was…
Allon led the Palmach and was an IDF major general who oversaw the Southern Command. He served in the Knesset from 1955 until his death. After the 1967 war, he proposed returning the West Bank…
Founder of the Meretz party, Aloni was known for advocating for peace and for human and civil rights, especially as a voice for women and against Orthodox control of society. She fought in the Palmach…
A Warsaw native who moved to Tel Aviv as a teen, Alterman was a playwright, poet, journalist and translator who influenced Labor Zionism and socialist Jewish policies despite never holding political office. He opposed martial…
Born in Germany, Amichai immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935 and became one of Israel’s best-known poets and the poet laureate of Jerusalem. He fought for the British in World War II, then with the…
Born in a part of Romania that is now in Ukraine, Appelfeld was a writer and professor who survived the Holocaust as a child after escaping a concentration camp. He reached the Land of Israel…
Baer, who escaped Germany in 1933, was a scholar of the social history of the modern Middle East, particularly Egypt, as well as the late Ottoman Empire. As a Hebrew University professor in African and…
Lithuania-born Barak was a 28-year Supreme Court justice who served as the president of the court from 1995 to 2006. He lifted restrictions on individual petitions to the court and strengthened the judiciary’s authority to…
Born in Poland, Baron emerged as one of the greatest Jewish historians of the 20th century. He opposed the “lachrymose conception of Jewish history,” which focused on Jewish suffering. Baron’s “Social and Religious History of…
Born in Warsaw and known as Mita, Bat-Dori immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1923 and brought theater to kibbutzim as an actress, playwright and theater director. Her plays targeted political issues, such as…
Born in Belarus, Begin joined the Revisionist Betar movement and escaped Nazis and Soviets to reach Palestine. He led the Irgun, then spent three decades in the political opposition, including arguing against German reparations. In…
Beinisch became the first female president of the Supreme Court in 2006 after serving over 10 years as a justice. She also was the first woman to serve as state attorney, the highest nonpolitical role…
Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister and its leading political force for two decades. Born in Poland, he arrived in Palestine in 1907. He formed socialist-leaning Mapai, the dominant political party, in 1930 and became…
A native of Belarus who grew up in Lithuania and made aliyah in 1936, Ben-Porat in 1977 became the first woman appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court and the first to serve on the highest…
Before becoming Israel’s second and longest-serving president in 1952, Ukraine-born Ben-Zvi co-founded Yishuv self-defense groups Bar Giora and Hashomer. He became a Poalei Zion leader after immigrating to Palestine in 1907. He was prominent in…
Born in Poland, Bentov was a writer and Knesset member who immigrated to Palestine in 1920. He founded the Mapam newspaper Al Hamishmar. He attended Zionist Congresses and was part of the Jewish Agency‘s U.N….
Born in Austria, philosopher Buber spoke at the Third Zionist Congress on behalf of education over propaganda to win Zionist support. He edited the Zionist weekly Die Welt for a year but left because he…
Israel’s most famous spy, Cohen infiltrated the Syrian government in the 1960s. Born in Egypt to Syrian Jewish parents, he applied his language skills to pretend to be businessman Kamel Amin Thaabet. He befriended top…
Known for the patch he wore after losing his left eye in World War II, Dayan was a military leader and politician. As a field commander, IDF chief of staff and defense minister, he helped…
A New York-born opera singer, De Philippe founded the Israel National Opera Company in 1947. She settled in Palestine after World War II and performed with the Palestine Folk Opera in 1945 and for the…
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, who was raised in England and made aliyah in 1944, Eban was a diplomat, politician and writer. With the Jewish Agency’s U.N. delegation, he was heavily involved in…
Einstein has been called the most important man in Israeli music. Combining folk and rock, Einstein’s music has been celebrated since his first album in 1960 and still influences pop. He introduced rock to Israel,…
Warsaw-born Eisenstadt was an internationally acclaimed sociologist noted for enhancing understanding of cultures and civilizations. Aside from guest professorships, he spent his career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, including time as department chairman and…
A Ukraine-born journalist, politician and diplomat, Elath arrived in the Land of Israel in 1924, joined the Jewish Agency in 1934, and became Israel’s first ambassador to the United States and, when the diplomatic post…
Eshkol, Israel’s third prime minister, was a farm worker after arriving from Ukraine in 1914. He organized labor and became a Mapai and Jewish Agency leader. He raised money for arms and for immigrant absorption….
Ukraine-born Gilboa was one of Israel’s leading poets, winning the Bialik and Israel prizes. His poems incorporated a biblical theme of moral ambiguity and reflected his experience as a soldier in World War II with…
Raised in Lithuania, Goldberg settled in Tel Aviv in 1935 and became a Hebrew poet, literary translator, and author of children’s books and plays. She referenced the effects of World War II on Jews in…
A singer, actress, and advocate for trans and gay rights, Goldstein in 1960 was the first trans Israeli woman to have sanctioned sex reassignment surgery. She co-founded the nonprofit organization Aguda in 1975 to help…
Gottlieb, who escaped the Holocaust in Hungary, was world-renowned and known as the “queen of Israeli fashion” for her swimsuit designs for Gottex, the textile company she created with her husband, Armin. The couple tried…
Moldova-born Granot (originally Granovsky) led the Jewish National Fund in expanding land purchases during the British Mandate. As JNF director-general starting in 1940, he led settlement and forestry initiatives. A signatory of the Declaration of…
As Israel’s attorney general from 1960 to 1963, Poland-born Hausner successfully prosecuted Adolf Eichmann in 1961 for his crimes against humanity and the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Hausner persuaded the court to sentence Eichmann…
Born into a Yemeni family in Tel Aviv, singer Haza helped popularize Mizrahi culture. Her song “Ga’agu’im” (“Yearning”) launched her career in 1973. She was Israel’s Singer of the Year from 1980 to 1983 and…
A politician, lawyer, diplomat and writer who immigrated from Ireland to Israel in 1935, Herzog was Israel’s sixth president. He led IDF military intelligence after the War of Independence. When the U.N. General Assembly passed…
Born in Holland, Hoofien was the president of Bank Leumi L’Yisrael when it issued Israel’s first non-British currency. He arrived in Ottoman Palestine in 1912 to help run the Anglo-Palestine Bank, which financed land purchases…
Horowitz, who was born in Galicia and immigrated to Palestine in 1920, helped organize the state economy as the first director-general of Israel’s Finance Ministry. He founded the Bank of Israel in 1954 and was…
Hurvitz, who was born in Jerusalem, in 1976 merged three companies, including one where he started working while attending the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, into Teva Pharmaceuticals. It became the world’s largest manufacturer of generic…
Joubran, a Maronite Christian born in Haifa, was the first Arab with a permanent seat on the Israeli Supreme Court, serving from 2004 to 2017 after a temporary appointment in 2003. He was often on…
A native of Minsk in present-day Belarus, Kaplan was an active Socialist Zionist before immigrating to Palestine in 1919. He served as the treasurer of the Jewish Agency and a member of the Zionist Executive…
Awarded the Israel Prize in 1980, modern Israeli historian Katz was a leading figure in Jewish social studies as a Hebrew University professor. He used rabbinical sources for books such as 1970’s “Freemasons and Jews”…
A Holocaust survivor from Hungary, Kishon was a columnist, playwright and film director. His satirical work portrayed social and political issues, often focusing on the day-to-day struggles of regular people or on the state bureaucracy….
Kolatt was a professor of the New Yishuv at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Goldstein professor emeritus of the history of Zionism. His books and articles address such topics as the organization…
Kollek was Jerusalem’s mayor from 1965 to 1993 and, after the city’s 1967 reunification, helped develop it into a modern metropolis with a vision for coexistence and religious protection. Born in Hungary, he was named…
Jerusalem native Levinger was a leader in the settler movement. He brought 30 families to a Hebron hotel in June 1968 to demand and win the right to establish the first permanent Jewish presence in…
One of Israel’s foremost choreographers and a 1973 Israel Prize winner, Levy-Tanai also produced plays and drew inspiration from her Mizrahi roots in her art. A Jerusalem native who was largely raised in orphanages, she…
Manor was a singer, songwriter, and TV and radio host. He wrote more than 1,200 songs, including the 1978 Eurovision winner, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi.” Many songs reacted to events such as the June 1967 war and the…
Born in Ukraine and raised in Wisconsin, Meir rose in Labor Zionism with the Histadrut and engaged in diplomacy for the Jewish Agency and Israel, including trying to keep Transjordan out of the 1948 war…
The older brother of Benjamin, Netanyahu was a military legend and the assault commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal commandos. A New York native who fought in the June 1967 war, he joined Sayeret Matkal…
Olmert, a 10-year Jerusalem mayor, served as Israel’s 12th prime minister from 2006 to 2009, taking office for Kadima after Ariel Sharon’s stroke and resigning amid charges of bribery and obstruction of justice, for which…
A Palmach veteran of the War of Independence, Ophir was a comedian, actor and singer for whom the Israeli Film Academy Award was named. He starred in almost 30 films, including the Hebrew version of…
Oz was a journalist, a novelist and one of the first Israeli intellectuals to endorse a two-state solution through his 1967 article “Land of Our Forefathers.” He was a frequent critic of Israel’s military policies…
Peres is the only Israeli to serve as prime minister and president. Born in Belarus, he arrived in Palestine in 1934. He helped establish and arm the initial IDF in the 1940s and launched a…
Porath specialized in the history of Palestinian nationalism as a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His books include “Palestine Jewry and the Arab Question, 1917-1925” and “In…
Rabin was a two-time prime minister whose assassination shattered hopes for peace under the Oslo Accords, for which he shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. He also signed a…
Berlin-born Rafael made a career in diplomacy after time as a soldier with the Haganah and the British. He was part of the Jewish Agency‘s U.N. delegation in 1947, was a founder of the Foreign…
Israel’s first astronaut, Ramon was an air force colonel and pilot who flew in Operation Opera, which destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981. He was one of the seven crew members aboard the space shuttle…
Called “the high priestess of the Hebrew theater” by a fellow actor, Belarus-born Rovina got her start onstage in Moscow with what became Israel’s national theater, Habimah. She was best known for playing Leah in…
Labor Party politician Sapir played a vital role in the development of the Israeli economy. Born in Poland as Pinhas Kozlowski, he immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1929. He served in the Cabinet…
A brilliant scholar of Jewish mysticism and messianism, Berlin-born Scholem arrived in the Land of Israel in 1923 after completing his doctorate and taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was the first…
Belarus-born Shamir was the seventh prime minister, serving two terms between 1983 and 1992. He was a Lehi leader during the British Mandate. As a Likud prime minister, he approved Operation Solomon to airlift in…
The first foreign minister and second prime minister of Israel, Ukraine-born Sharett (originally Shertok) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the key negotiators of cease-fire agreements that ended the War…
Sharon led IDF commandos in the 1950s, was a field commander in 1967 and drove the Sinai counteroffensive in 1973. As defense minister, he launched the First Lebanon War, which resulted in an 18-year occupation,…
Singer-songwriter Shemer was considered the “first lady of Israeli song.” She wrote “Jerusalem of Gold” (“Yerushalayim Shel Zahav”) for the 1967 Israel Song Festival, and it became the anthem for a united Jerusalem after the…
Born in Jerusalem, Shiloah was the founding director of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. His support of the British military during World War II included planning Hannah Senesh‘s mission. Before independence he obtained the Arab…
Sneh was a left-wing Knesset member from 1949 to 1972, mostly with the Communist Maki party. Born in Poland, Sneh was a founder of the General Zionists in 1935 and a doctor with the Polish…
Originally from Moscow, Sprinzak was the first speaker of the Knesset, a position he held until his death. He was interim president after Chaim Weizmann died. After immigrating to Palestine during the Second Aliyah, Sprinzak…
Born in Tel Aviv, Topol was an actor, singer and comedian best known for playing Tevye on the stage and screen in “Fiddler on the Roof.” He received Oscar and Tony nominations and won two…
Urbach was a religion scholar and rabbi whose seminal work, The Sages, focused on the evolution of Jewish religious and social thought. A native of Poland, Urbach studied in Rome and Breslau before immigrating to…
Belarus-born Warhaftig persuaded Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara to issue 3,500 visas for Jews fleeing Lithuania at the start of World War II, then escaped to Canada via Japan. He reached the Land of Israel in…
Born in Ukraine, Weitz moved to Palestine in 1908 and became a leader in efforts to acculturate immigrants through agricultural labor. He helped found the Galilee’s Yavniel moshav and Jerusalem’s Beit Hakerem neighborhood. Starting in…
Weizman, the nephew of Chaim Weizmann, was Israel’s seventh president from 1993 to 2000. He was a founder of the Israeli Air Force and became its commander in 1958. As defense minister in the first…
Weizmann, a native of Russian-controlled Poland, was the first president of Israel. In England during World War I, he used his chemistry skills to develop a synthetic process for making acetone and thus made relationships…
Yadin was a military commander and an archaeologist. He led the Negev campaign against the Egyptians in the War of Independence and served as the second IDF chief of staff from 1949 to 1952. He…
A part of the new wave of Israeli authors, Yehoshua wrote short stories, novels and plays, including “The Lover,” “The Tunnel” and “A Tale of Two Zionists.” He received international literary awards ranging from the…
Born in Baghdad, Yosef in 1984 founded Shas, an Orthodox Sephardi political party. He exerted authority within the party and backed government funding for the poor and Orthodox. An important Talmudic scholar, he served as…
Aaronsohn was born in Zikhron Ya’akov in Ottoman Palestine. After witnessing the Armenian genocide, she decided to help the British against the Ottomans in World War I with the Nili ring of Jewish spies, founded…
Aaronsohn, who made aliyah to Ottoman Palestine as a 6-year-old in 1882, discovered a strain of emmer wheat that could sustain itself in harsh climates. The agronomist became known worldwide, even working with the U.S….
Born in Ukraine, Agronsky immigrated to the United States. He wrote for Jewish newspapers and later for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In 1918 he joined Britain’s Jewish Legion in Palestine. He dived into Zionist politics…
Alkalai is credited with the idea of a national fund for Jewish land purchases. Adamant about the Jewish people returning to Eretz Yisrael, he advocated statehood in a booklet called “Shema Yisrael.” After the Damascus…
Arlosoroff, an ardent socialist and Zionist, was born in Ukraine and immigrated to Palestine in 1921. He was a founder of the Histadrut labor federation. Working with the Jewish Agency, he helped negotiate the Haavara…
Bat-Miriam, born in Belarus, is considered one of the four “mother poets” of modern Hebrew. Her 1937 book, “Eretz Yisrael,” examines the Land of Israel as a woman. She wrote many poems about biblical women…
Ben-Yehuda was born in Belarus and moved to Palestine in 1881. He championed the use of modernized Hebrew as an essential element of Zionism. He edited Hebrew newspapers, created the first modern Hebrew dictionary and…
Bialik, recognized as Israel’s national poet, was born in Ukraine and moved to Palestine in 1924. After interviewing survivors of the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom, he wrote “Be-Ir ha-Haregah” (“In the City of Slaughter”), in which…
Bikhovsky, one of the “four mothers” of modern Hebrew poetry, often known simply as Elisheva, wrote about Zionism and antisemitism without biblical and rabbinical references. She was drawn to Hebrew as a Russian girl and…
An Austrian-born journalist, activist and writer, Birnbaum coined the word “Zionism” in the late 19th century. Using the pseudonym Mathias Acher, he wrote about the sociopolitical culture of European Jewry and expanded on the ideas…
One of the four “founding mothers” of modern Hebrew poetry, known as Rachel the Poetess or simply Rachel, Bluwstein was born in Russia and moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1909. She wrote most of her…
An early leader of German Zionism, Bodenheimer helped establish a Jewish bank in Ottoman Palestine and the Jewish National Fund, for which he was the first chairman. Bodenheimer corresponded with Theodor Herzl, attended the first…
A socialist and Labor Zionist founder from Ukraine, Borochov emphasized the poor working conditions of Jews in the Diaspora. Pulling from Marxism, he combined economic theory with nationalism. At the Seventh Zionist Congress, in response…
Born in Ukraine, Brenner emerged as the leading Hebrew literary figure in Palestine in the early 20th century. He joined the Bund, a Jewish socialist movement, as a young man and became a Zionist who…
Ukrainian-born Brodetsky engaged the Zionist movement as an undergraduate at Cambridge. He attended the Twelfth to Twenty-Third Zionist Congresses and served with the World Zionist Executive from 1928 to 1951. He was the president of…
A native of what is now Moldova, Dizengoff became a leader with Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) in Russia. He moved to Palestine in 1893 and managed a glass factory. He opposed the Uganda Plan…
An agronomist from Lithuania who moved to Palestine in 1908, Elazari-Volcani was a Hapoel Hatzair leader who advocated settlement by Jewish labor. He taught farming and advised the Zionist Organization and Palestine Office on agriculture….
Belarus-born agricultural settlement leader Ettinger encouraged Jewish families to live on the land outside capitalist society. He served as director general of the Jewish Colonization Association in South America and in a leadership role for…
Feiwel was born in Moravia, now in the Czech Republic. He co-founded the Jewish People’s Voice in 1897 and the Jiidischer Verlag publishing house in Berlin in 1902 and served as the editor of Theodor…
A Ukrainian-born scholar, Friedlander was a commissioner for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He became a U.S. Zionist leader and wrote books including “Past and Present: A Collection of Jewish Essays.” He was a…
Born in Belarus, Golomb settled in Palestine in 1909 and was part of the Herzliya Gymnasium’s first graduating class. A member of the Jewish Legion in World War I, he helped organize the Haganah and…
Born in Ukraine, Gordon emerged as a leader in the nascent Zionist movement. Part of the Second Aliyah, he was the rare middle-aged, devout Jew to settle in Palestine in the early 20th century. He…
Gottheil attended the Second Zionist Congress, where Theodor Herzl invited her to translate his speech into French, Italian and English. In the United States she organized women’s study groups that were the precursors of Hadassah….
Hungarian-born Gruner joined the Betar movement and illegally immigrated to Palestine in 1940. He served in the British army’s Jewish Brigade to fight Nazis. After World War II he joined the Irgun. He was seriously…
Born in Ukraine, Ahad Ha’am joined Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) in Odesa and attended the First Zionist Congress but opposed political Zionism. He preferred cultural Zionism, creating a Jewish cultural center in Palestine as…
A two-time president of Hadassah, Halprin lived in Jerusalem in the late 1930s to serve as the Hadassah Medical Organization’s liaison during the construction of Hadassah Hospital at Mount Scopus. She spoke against violence during…
Hankin was born in Ukraine and moved to Palestine with his father in 1882. The Hankins were among the founders of Rishon LeZion, now one of the largest cities in Israel. Acting on behalf of…
Born in Hungary, Herzl is viewed as the father of modern political Zionism. A journalist, novelist and playwright, he embraced Zionism after reporting on Alfred Dreyfus’ trial in France. His pamphlet “Der Judenstaat” (“The Jewish…
Born into an Orthodox family in Germany in 1812, Hess became interested in socialism, befriended Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and contributed to the Communist Manifesto. He recognized that German nationalism would inspire increased antisemitism….
Born in the Russian-controlled Poland, Huberman toured Europe as an acclaimed violinist at age 11. He first visited the Land of Israel in 1929 and decided to bring classical music there. In 1936 he established…
Born in Ukraine, Imber moved to Palestine in 1882. Trained as a watchmaker, he instead became a Hebrew poet. His first poetry collection, which he published in Jerusalem in 1886, included “Tikvateinu” (“Our Hope”), which…
A journalist born in Odesa, Jabotinsky organized self-defense units and fought for Jewish rights in Russia. He attended most Zionist Congresses from 1903 to 1933. He co-founded the Zion Mule Corps in World War I….
Born in Prussia, Kalischer was an early proponent of the resettlement of the Land of Israel to strengthen the Jewish people. He contributed to Hebrew journals and wrote on the need for Diaspora Jews to…
Belarus-born Katznelson co-founded the Histadrut labor federation and advocated for labor unity to uplift Jewish workers and small landholders. Immigrating to the Land of Israel in 1909, Katznelson became involved in labor councils. He helped…
A British brigadier general, Kisch chaired the predecessor to the Jewish Agency, the Palestine Zionist Executive, from 1918 to 1921. Kisch was prolific in Jewish life in Mandate Palestine. He helped found the Palestine Philharmonic…
A historian born in Lithuania who attended the First Zionist Congress and others, Klausner supported Ahad Ha’am’s cultural Zionism and succeeded Ha’am as the editor of Hashiloah. He immigrated in 1919 and became a Hebrew…
Kook was born in Latvia and was one of the fathers of Religious Zionism. As a rabbi in London, he rallied popular support for the Balfour Declaration. After he immigrated to Palestine in 1919, Kook…
A Belarus native, Levin was a Jewish Enlightenment poet who wrote in Hebrew on socialist themes. Concerned with Jewish lives in Russia, Levin wrote one of his most famous poems, “Daniyel be-gov ha-arayot” (“Daniel in…
Born in Galicia, Lilien was an art nouveau illustrator and lithographer who co-founded the Berlin Jiidischer Verlag, the premier Jewish and Zionist publishing house in Western Europe, in 1902. He highlighted Jewish themes and often…
A scholar and author born in Lithuania, Lilienblum embraced the Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia after the pogroms of 1881 and served as secretary of an Odesa committee on Palestine settlement. His…
Born in the San Francisco Bay area, Magnes was ordained as a rabbi in 1900 and helped found such U.S. organizations as the American Jewish Committee and American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. An advocate of…
Maisel-Shohat was born in Belarus, where she was jailed for Zionist activities. She studied and trained for agriculture before moving in 1909 to Palestine, where she advocated women’s roles in farming and started agricultural institutions…
Margalit-Kalvarisky was an agronomist who purchased tracts in the Galilee and served as an administrator for the Jewish Colonization Association. He advised the British authorities and served in the Yishuv leadership in the 1920s. He…
Born in Lithuania and ordained at the Volozhin yeshiva, Mohilever was a founder of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia and served as its president in the 1880s. He helped launch Religious…
Montefiore was an English entrepreneur and philanthropist who visited Ottoman Palestine seven times. Deeply affected religiously by his first visit, he financed Jewish land purchases, settlements, industry, education and health there and directed money bequeathed…
Born in Ukraine, Motzkin joined the Russian-Jewish Academic Society at the University of Berlin, a forerunner of political Zionism. At the First Zionist Congress he helped formulate the Basel Program for achieving a Jewish home…
Born in Budapest, Nordau was a physician and writer. In 1883 he had his greatest publishing success with “The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization,” which attacked organized religion and other institutions. In the 1890s he…
Pinsker was born in Russian-ruled Poland. He advocated full Jewish emancipation and joined the assimilationist Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia, but pogroms in 1871 and 1881 pushed him to…
The first female member of the Polish Parliament, Pomerantz-Meltzer represented a Zionist party. She supported Zionist youth groups and founded the Zionist Jewish Women’s Circle. She attended the Tenth Zionist Congress in 1911 and was…
Considered one of the four mothers of modern Hebrew poetry, Raab was the only one born in the Land of Israel. She was the child of one of Petah Tikvah’s founding couples. Her poems celebrated…
A Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi born in Belarus, Reines was one of the earliest leaders of Religious Zionism, supported an unsuccessful effort to establish a settlement mixing Torah and labor in the early 1890s, and founded…
A member of the French banking family, Rothschild was a leading proponent of the Zionist movement and, beginning in 1882, provided decisive financial assistance to Jewish settlements such as Rishon LeZion, Zichron Ya’akov and Rosh…
Rubowitz was a member of the underground militant group Lehi (the Stern Gang) who disappeared from Rehavia in Jerusalem while carrying propaganda and became a Zionist martyr. Part of Brit Hashmonaim, a religious youth group…
Ruppin was a German Jew sent to Palestine in 1907 to assess the Jewish community and potential of Zionist settlement. He opened the Zionist Organization’s Palestine office and became the chief land agent. He was…
Rutenberg was born in Russia and devoted himself to the Russian revolutions of the early 20th century. After realizing that antisemitism remained potent in European politics, he immigrated to Palestine. During the British Mandate, he…
Schach, a Frenchwoman, joined the Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement. She attended all the Zionist Congresses through the 1920s and was a forceful speaker. She supported Theodor Herzl and criticized his rivals for not…
Lithuanian-born Schapira was a math professor at the University of Heidelberg. He first proposed creating what became the Jewish National Fund to purchase and develop land in Palestine. At the First Zionist Congress in 1897…
Born into a religious family in Lithuania, Schatz pursued a career as an artist. In 1903 he met Theodor Herzl and became a staunch Zionist. He received support from the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905…
Senesh, a native of Hungary, became a martyr and inspiration to generations of soldiers. She was a poet best known for “Eli Eli” (“Oh, God, My God”) who immigrated to Palestine in 1939. A Haganah…
An Italian Zionist, Sereni was a member of the British army’s Jewish Brigade in World War II. He assisted in getting Jews out of Germany, distributed anti-fascist materials in Egypt and worked with the Youth…
Smilansky was born into a farming family in Ukraine and urged agricultural labor to renew the Jewish people. He joined the First Aliyah in the 1890s. He helped launch and led the moshav movement and…
Born into poverty in Russia, Smolenskin emerged as a prominent Hebrew writer and early proponent of the Zionist movement during the 19th century. His novels depicting Jewish life conveyed his political ideas and social grievances….
Born in Poland, Sokolow was a prolific writer and journalist, including a Hebrew newspaper in Warsaw and books on geography and antisemitism. He translated Theodor Herzl’s “Altneuland” into Hebrew as “Tel Aviv,” providing the city’s…
Born in Russian-ruled Poland, Stern immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1925. After serving in the Haganah, he joined the militant underground Irgun in 1932. He broke from the Irgun in 1940 to form Lehi, a…
Born in Belarus, Syrkin joined Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) in high school. He was one of the earliest proponents of Labor Zionism, which called for the establishment of a socialist-Jewish state in the Land…
Baltimore native Szold co-founded Hadassah, was its first president from 1912 to 1926, and led its establishment of health care infrastructure in Palestine. In 1896, before Theodor Herzl published “The Jewish State,” she described her…
Ukraine-born Tchernichovsky was a physician and one of the great poets working in modern Hebrew. Drawn to Zionism and modern Hebrew in the 1890s, he didn’t settle in Mandate Palestine until 1931, when a contract…
A founder of the Jewish National Council in pre-state Palestine, Thon with Arthur Ruppin founded the kibbutz in the Beit Shean Valley. Born in Poland, he immigrated to Palestine in 1907 and worked as the…
Trumpeldor lost an arm in the Russo-Japanese War and was the most decorated Jewish soldier in the Russian army. He led immigrants to Palestine to be farmers in 1911. During World War I, he helped…
Ukraine-born Tschlenow was a physician and speaker for the Zionist cause who vocalized support for major land purchases in Palestine. He led the walkout from the Sixth Zionist Congress after it voted to support the…
Born in Belarus, Ussishkin was a Labor Zionist leader who rejected the Uganda Plan and any other suggestions for a Jewish home outside the Land of Israel. He was a founder of BILU and the…
A British army officer, Wingate was sent to Palestine in 1936 to counter Arab violence against the British and Jews. A fundamentalist Christian who embraced the prophetic vision of a Jewish return to Israel, he…
Wolffsohn was born in Lithuania and became active in Zionist affairs as a businessman in Cologne, Germany. In 1893 he established the Cologne Association for the Development of Agriculture in the Land of Israel. He…
Yellin co-founded and led the Hebrew Language Committee and the Teachers Union. He also founded a Hebrew teachers college now named after him. He helped modernize Hebrew and published a dictionary in 1920. He held…
Born in London, Zangwill was a journalist, humorist, novelist and dramatist. He introduced Theodor Herzl to Joseph Chamberlain, who proposed the Uganda Plan. When the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905 rejected that idea to settle…
Abzug was the first Jewish woman elected to Congress, representing New York as a Democrat in the House from 1971 to 1977. The daughter of immigrants from Russia, she joined Zionist youth group Hashomer Hatzir…
Casino magnate Adelson was one of the biggest donors to Israeli and Jewish causes. He launched and owned Israel Hayom, Israel’s most widely distributed newspaper, and was a stalwart backer of Benjamin Netanyahu. He funded…
Adenauer, West Germany’s chancellor from 1949 to 1963, initiated talks in March 1952 that resulted in West Germany agreeing to pay Israel 3 billion marks over 12 years as Holocaust reparations. The funds were crucial…
Balfour, an English politician and diplomat who served as the British prime minister from 1902 to 1905, was the foreign secretary in November 1917 when he sent a letter to Lord Rothschild that became known…
Born in Ukraine, Barou was a trade unionist and political activist who was active in Poalei Zion. After that group broke with the new Soviet authorities, he moved to London, where he helped found the…
Bauer was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor before and after World War II. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1933, lived in Denmark from 1936 to 1943, then escaped to neutral Sweden. He…
Born in Massachusetts to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Bernstein was a prominent pianist, conductor and humanitarian. His longtime association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra began with a concert he conducted in Tel Aviv in 1947. Among…
Serving as the American Jewish Committee president, Blaustein in 1950 coordinated with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to reach the Blaustein-Ben-Gurion Agreement on Israel-Diaspora relations. The agreement aimed to secure financial and political support for…
The first Jew on the U.S. Supreme Court, Brandeis influenced many American Jews in the early 20th century to become Zionists. He persuaded President Woodrow Wilson, a close friend, to support the 1917 Balfour Declaration…
Bronfman, part of the Canadian Jewish family who built the Seagram beverage company, co-founded Birthright Israel, which brings young Jewish adults from around the world to Israel for a 10-day educational visit. His foundation, Charles…
Bunche, an American diplomat, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for brokering the armistice agreements between Israel and four Arab neighbors in 1949. He served in 1947 with the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine,…
The 43rd U.S. president, Bush offered a vision for a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution in June 2002 that inspired the “Roadmap for Peace” presented by the Quartet (the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia)…
The 39th U.S. president, Carter mediated the 1978 Camp David Accords and 1979 peace treaty between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The treaty was the first between Israel and an…
Celler was New York’s longest-serving congressman, holding a House seat from 1923 to 1973. He read Herzl during World War I and became a Zionist. He attempted to assist fellow Jews by opposing the Immigration…
Churchill visited Palestine in March 1921 as the British secretary of state for the colonies and declared that a Jewish national home would be a “blessing to the whole world.” In July 1922, after the…
As a special presidential counsel, Clifford opposed the pro-Arab State Department and urged President Harry Truman to maintain support for the U.N. partition of Palestine and to lift the arms embargo on Jewish forces heading…
As president, Clinton hosted the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, helped Jordan and Israel achieve a peace treaty in 1994, and mediated the 1995 Oslo II agreement that recognized the Palestinian Authority. He brokered…
Cotler is Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism after serving as a member of Parliament and justice minister. He defended Israel and Jews at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in…
A leader of the Labor Party Zionists in the British Parliament, Crossman served on the 1944-1946 Anglo-American Palestine Commission, which aimed to set the number of Jews permitted into Palestine after World War II. He…
American billionaire Crown is a philanthropist who supports many Israeli causes, including Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is dedicated to sharing Israel’s accomplishments with the world. He is a director…
Deutch, a Democratic congressman from Florida since 2010, succeeded David Harris as the American Jewish Committee CEO on Oct. 1, 2022. In the U.S. House he introduced and supported legislation and resolutions to further U.S.-Israel…
A close adviser to Chaim Weizmann on his relations with British officials, Dugdale was a strong, non-Jewish advocate for Zionism. A niece of Arthur Balfour’s, she wrote a biography of him and a book on…
Einstein was a Zionist who wrote about the importance of Jewish nationalism in 1921. The physicist credited Zionism with strengthening the Jewish community, though he preferred a binational Palestine to partition. He raised money for…
Pittsburgh native Fisher, who made his fortune in Midwestern gas stations and real estate, advised Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush on the Middle East and Jewish issues. He helped persuade Nixon…
Foxman was the national director of the Anti-Defamation League from 1987 to 2015. He and ADL spoke out against rising anti-Israel sentiment as an expression of increasing antisemitism beginning in the late 1990s. A Holocaust…
García-Granados, Guatemala’s ambassador to the United Nations and a member of the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, was moved by Chaim Weizmann’s partition pleas to UNSCOP in July 1947 and cast the first vote for…
Goldberg resigned as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1965 to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He drafted the text of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, the basis of all “land…
Harris served as the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee from 1990 until the end of September 2022. He made advocacy for a Jewish, democratic, internationally accepted Israel a fundamental part of AJC’s efforts….
Hertzberg, who arrived in the United States from Poland in 1926, was a Conservative rabbi and scholar. He was the president of the American Jewish Congress in the 1970s and vice president of the World…
Hoenlein is transitioning out of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which coordinates support for Israel, after serving as the executive vice chairman since 1986. He handed the CEO position to William…
As Jordan’s king, Hussein tried to annex the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem while ruling them from 1948 to 1967. He lost everything west of the Jordan River after he attacked Israel to support Egypt…
As a congressman from 1941 to 1953 and a senator from 1953 until 1983 for Washington state, Jackson was one of the leading pro-Zionist and pro-Israel voices in Congress. He wrote legislative amendments in 1970…
Jacobson and Harry Truman became close friends during World War I and partnered after the war in a failed haberdashery. In March 1948, Jacobson visited Truman, now the president, at the White House and persuaded…
The deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Jacobson is the civil rights organization’s No. 2 official and its longest-serving professional. Since 1971, in roles that include international affairs, education, and marketing and communications, he…
The 36th U.S. president, Johnson increased U.S. economic and military support for Israel. Unlike Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, Johnson did not demand Israel’s immediate withdrawal from captured territory after the 1967 war. He outlined five…
Isaiah “Si” Kenen in 1951 founded the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, the predecessor of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Kenen’s organization provided a united pro-Israel voice in Washington and helped win…
Kirkpatrick was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Ronald Reagan. She built a close relationship with Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Blum and was as staunch in her support of Israel as she was…
Kissinger was the national security adviser and secretary of state to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He heavily influenced U.S. policy in the Middle East and made “shuttle diplomacy” famous after the October 1973…
Howard Kohr has served as the top executive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee since 1996. Under Kohr, AIPAC has built support beyond the Jewish community. Its lobbying for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship has…
A native of Hungary, Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, representing California in the House from 1981 to 2008. Steven Spielberg’s documentary “The Last Days” featured Lantos’ life story. He was…
Recruited by Si Kenen, Lauter worked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in San Francisco for more than 50 years, from chief volunteer recruiter to regional director to a consultant training staff across the…
Jewish poet Lazarus’ words, taken from “The New Colossus,” are on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She wrote some of…
Orientalist scholar Lewis, a London native who finished his academic career at Princeton, influenced American foreign policy and the West’s attitudes toward the Middle East. He backed U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. His “Lewis…
Lewis served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985, second in tenure to Walworth Barbour. He played an important part in brokering Israeli-Egyptian peace and provided the on-site U.S. response to the…
Lloyd George was the British prime minister from 1916 to 1922. His government issued the Balfour Declaration and took control of Palestine during World War I, negotiated for the inclusion of the declaration’s language at…
Home Depot co-founder Marcus has devoted much of his philanthropy to Israel and to organizations supporting Israel. Examples within Israel include the Israel Democracy Institute and Magen David Adom’s underground blood storage facility in Ramle….
Marshall co-founded the American Jewish Committee and served as its president from 1912 to 1926. He supported efforts that aided the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and united Zionists and anti-Zionists in helping…
A longtime resident of Alabama, Mitchell was the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee from 1990 to 1992 and AIPAC’s chairman from 1993 to 1996. As an activist and philanthropist for Jewish and…
Morgenthau was the U.S. secretary of the Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman from 1934 to 1945. He drove the creation of the War Refugee Board in 1944 to help Jews escape the Nazis…
Moynihan was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1975 when the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, equating Zionism with racism. He delivered a passionate speech lambasting the resolution and its supporters and…
Though he expressed antisemitic views in private, Nixon as the 37th U.S. president authorized the airlift that replenished Israel’s arms during the October 1973 war, providing the means for Israel to end the war with…
The 44th U.S. president, Obama was less active in seeking Middle East peace than his three immediate predecessors and tried to strengthen relations with Israel’s neighbors. He split with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over…
Pope Paul VI’s visit to the Holy Land in 1964 served as de facto recognition of the State of Israel. It was the first time any pope left Italy in over a century. In 1965,…
Although considered pro-Israel, Reagan, the 40th U.S. president, acted to balance U.S. policy toward Israel and Arab states. Under Reagan, the United States halted F-16 sales to Israel after its raid on Iraq’s nuclear reactor…
The CEO of the Jewish National Fund (JNF-USA) since 1997, Robinson has led programs to raise billions of dollars for Israeli infrastructure beyond trees, including reservoirs, the revival of Be’er Sheva, and the sustainable development…
Working in the Defense Department, with the National Security Council or in the State Department under every president from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, Ross helped shape U.S. Middle East policy. He helped get Israel…
Ruskay was the executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York from 1999 to 2014, giving him influence over millions of dollars a year allocated within Israel. He remains a consultant to nonprofits…
Sadat was elevated from Egypt’s vice president to president after Gamal Abdel Nasser died in 1970. With Syria, he launched the October 1973 war against Israel. He flew to Israel four years later in pursuit…
Serving from 1973 to 1996 as the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Schindler aligned the Reform movement with Zionism. Going back to the mid-19th century, Reform had emphasized Jewish religion over peoplehood….
Charles Schusterman, born in the Soviet Union, and wife Lynn, a Missouri native, used their Oklahoma oil wealth to launch the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. The foundation is deeply involved in Israeli and…
Silver, a child immigrant to New York from Lithuania, was a leading American advocate and fundraiser for Zionism and headed the U.S. Zionist establishment in the late 1940s. He rallied support for a Jewish state…
Since 2020, Snyder has been the executive chairman of the U.S.-based Jerusalem Foundation, which raises money and seeks partnerships to support the efforts of the Jerusalem Foundation in Israel to develop Jerusalem into an ideal…
A British lawyer, Stein was stationed with the army in Jerusalem and Cairo and was part of the pre-mandate British administration of Palestine. He published a 1922 pamphlet titled “The Truth About Palestine” to counter…
Billionaire New York philanthropist Steinhardt’s extensive donations to Jewish causes include co-founding Birthright Israel with Charles Bronfman and launching a network of Hebrew-language charter schools. He chaired the board of Tel Aviv University and endowed…
Sykes was a British diplomat who, with French diplomat François Georges-Picot, negotiated the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916. The pact called for dividing the Middle East territories of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in…
The 33rd U.S. president, Truman had the United States vote for the U.N. partition plan for Palestine in November 1947 and made the United States the first country to recognize the State of Israel in…
The 45th and 47th U.S. president, Trump took steps in both terms to strengthen ties with Israel. He withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He fulfilled a deferred 1995 law and moved the U.S….
As a U.S. senator from New York from 1927 to 1949, Wagner was a prominent Christian Zionist. He introduced unsuccessful legislation in 1939 to admit 20,000 Jewish refugee children from Germany. He co-wrote a congressional…
Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who in 1944 saved thousands of Hungarian Jews, including future Congressman Tom Lantos, by providing protective passports and safe houses. He went missing in January 1945 and is believed to…
Weinberg is the founder and chairman emerita of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, fulfilling a vision she shared with her late husband, Larry, a former AIPAC president. In 1973 she became the first…
Weiss is an author and activist who led the movement to free Soviet Jewry; ultimately, more than 1 million immigrants moved as the Soviet Union crumbled. He served as spy Jonathan Pollard’s personal rabbi and…
Labor Party leader Wilson was the British prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976 and was one of Parliament’s strongest supporters of Israel, where he made social democratic friends. He spoke up…
A U.S. businessman who wasn’t Jewish, Winters bought three surplus U.S. B-17 bombers on the pretense that they were for his Caribbean transport service. Instead, he delivered them to the nascent Israeli Air Force in…
A native of Hungary who immigrated to the United States as a toddler, Wise co-founded the New York Federation of Zionist Societies in 1897 and the Federation of Zionist Societies in 1898 and launched the…
Bin Zayed, known as MBZ, is the president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi. In August 2020 he signed the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel….
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