August 11, 2017 Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest living man and one of the 10 longest-lived men ever, dies in Haifa one month before his…
August 1, 2016 Andre Hajdu, a prolific composer and ethnomusicologist, dies at age 84 in Jerusalem. Hajdu was born in Hungary on March 5, 1932. After displaying an early aptitude for music and the arts,…
March 23, 2016 Aharon Megged, who won almost every literary prize in Israel, including the S.Y. Agnon Prize, Prime Minister’s Prize, President’s Prize and 2003 Israel Prize, dies in Tel Aviv at age 95. He…
August 16, 2015 Physicist Jacob Bekenstein, whose work on black holes advanced efforts to create a theory of quantum gravity, dies of a heart attack at age 68 in Helsinki, Finland, where he is scheduled…
August 6, 2015 Stage and screen actress Orna Porat dies at age 91 in Tel Aviv. She was born Irene Klein, a German Christian, near Cologne in 1924. She turned toward atheism and socialism in…
September 19, 2014 Actor, screenwriter, director and producer Avraham Heffner dies at age 79 in Tel Aviv. He was born in Haifa in 1935 and served in the Nahal army band during his time in…
November 26, 2013 Arik Einstein, one of Israel’s most beloved singers and songwriters, dies of an aortic aneurysm in Tel Aviv at age 74. The national outpouring of grief includes a gathering of thousands of…
February 17, 2013 Shmulik Kraus dies from swine flu in Tel Aviv at age 77 after a long career as one of Israel’s most influential musicians. Kraus was born in Jerusalem on July 1, 1935,…
April 30, 2012 Benzion Netanyahu, the father of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dies at home in Jerusalem at age 102. He was born Benzion Mileikowsky in Warsaw on March 25, 1910. His father…
The Knesset adopts the “Photoshop Law” to prevent adult fashion and commercial models from losing weight to the detriment of their health, or appearing unhealthily underweight in ads, negatively effecting body image issues amongst Israelis.
Israeli composer Daniel Barenboim is named musical director of the prestigious La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy.
Demonstrating against the rising costs of living and economic inequalities in Israel, more than 450,000 protestors fill the streets throughout the country. It is the largest demonstration in Israel’s history.
July 2, 2011 Uri Dvir, one of the founders of Shvil Yisrael (the Israel National Trail), dies at age 80 at home in Tel Aviv. Dvir was born in Tel Aviv in 1931 and began…
Holocaust survivor Yoel Margalith is credited with saving millions of lives and preventing blindness in millions of others through the discovery of a mosquito-killing bacterium.
September 21, 2010 Legal expert and diplomat Shabtai Rosenne, a law professor at Bar-Ilan University, dies of a heart attack at age 92. He is considered one of the most important international lawyers of the…
Chelsea Football Club, one of Europe’s most prized teams, offers Yossi Benayoun, one of Israel’s top soccer players, a three-year, multimillion-dollar deal.
June 17, 2010 Thirty-five Haredi fathers of girls attending the Beis Yaakov Chasidi School in Emanuel refuse a Supreme Court order to send their daughters to the regular Beis Yaakov School and instead accept two-week…
Acclaimed jazz artist John Zorn hosts the first annual Israeli Jazz Festival at “The Stone,” his New York City venue.
Ada Yonath was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Jerusalem, then under the British Mandate. Yonath’s family was poor and lived in a four-room apartment that they shared with two other families.
November 17, 2008 Organized-crime leader Yaakov Alperon, 53, a suspected murderer who has survived as many as three assassination attempts, is driving home from a court hearing for two of his sons in Tel Aviv…
December 6, 2007 An Israeli archaeological dig discovers the remains of a 2,000-year-old mansion in the Old City of Jerusalem that is believed to have belonged to Queen Helene of Adiabene. Archaeologists say the building…
The Modi’in Miracle defeats the Petach Tikvah Pioneers 9-1 in the inaugural game of the Israel Baseball League (IBL). The game is played before a crowd of more than 3,000 at Yarkon Field in Petach Tikvah.
May 8, 2007 A public announcement reveals that the tomb of King Herod the Great has been found at Herodium in the Judean Desert of the West Bank in an excavation led by archaeologist Ehud…
Organized by Israeli author Aharon Applefeld and politician Natan Sharansky, the Kisufim Conference opened in Jerusalem.
