November 10, 2004 More than half a century after the founding of the state of Israel, the Knesset officially adopts “Hatikvah” (“The Hope”) as the national anthem. The song became the anthem of the Zionist…
August 25, 2004 Windsurfer Gal Fridman wins Israel’s first and, through 2020, only Olympic gold medal at the Summer Games in Athens. Born and raised in Pardes Hana-Karkur in northern Israel, Fridman began windsurfing under…
June 26, 2004 Israel Prize-winning musician Naomi Shemer, best known for writing “Jerusalem of Gold,” dies at age 73 at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv after a long battle with cancer. Born in 1930 at…
April 13, 2004 Hapoel Jerusalem captures its first European basketball championship and first international title by winning the ULEB Cup, also known as the EuroCup tournament, with an 83-72 victory over Real Madrid in Charleroi,…
March 12, 2004 Natan Yonatan, one of Israel’s greatest poets, dies at age 80. Yonatan was born in Kyiv in 1923 and soon immigrated to Palestine with his parents. A few years later the family…
Yaakov Farkash, known by the pen name Ze’ev and considered the father of Israeli political cartoons, dies at age 79 near Tel Aviv.
December 4, 2000 The Knesset passes legislation proposed by Ehud Barak, who is Israel’s education minister as well as its prime minister, to prevent discrimination in schools and educational centers. The Pupils’ Rights Law draws…
Archaeologist Claire Epstein, who performed many archaeological surveys and excavations in Israel, including discovering the culture of the Chalcolithic period (4500-3300 B.C.E.) in the Golan, passes away in Kibbutz Ginossar.
July 18, 1999 Singer-songwriter Meir Ariel, 57, known as the “Man of Words” for his poetic Hebrew lyrics, dies of Mediterranean spotted fever transmitted by a tick. He is buried at Kibbutz Mishmarot, where he…
May 9, 1998 Dana International wins the Eurovision Song Contest, becoming the third Israeli and the first since 1979 to do so, with her performance of the techno-pop song “Diva” in Birmingham, England. Her victory…
September 24, 1996 A northern exit from the Western Wall Tunnel to the Via Dolorosa opens to the public, leading to three days of Palestinian riots. The excavation of the tunnel began after Israel’s capture…
During his term as President, Barak is instrumental in expanding the court’s power, especially in the area of protecting civil liberties and personal freedoms, often from government rulings or military actions.
Famed Israeli Composer Menachem Avidom, whose compositions help lay the groundwork for future Mizrahi and Sephardic (Middle Eastern Jewish) music in Israel, passes away in Tel Aviv.
February 12, 1994 Figure skater Michael “Misha” Shmerkin becomes the first Israeli to participate in the Winter Olympics when he marches in the opening ceremonies in Lillehammer, Norway, after three days of travel: two by…
July 30, 1992 Yael Arad at age 25 becomes the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal, taking the silver in judo in the half-middleweight (61-kilogram) class at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. She dedicates…
July 25, 1992 Aris San, who popularized Greek music in Israel, mysteriously dies at age 52 while living in Budapest. His quick cremation and past connections to organized crime at his nightclubs contribute to conspiracy…
June 18, 1992 Mordecai Ardon, one of Israel’s best-known painters, dies at age 95 in Jerusalem. Born Max Bronstein in Galicia in 1896, he ran away from his religiously observant family at 13 and wandered…
The biennial Tel-Aviv International Student Film Festival film festival includes a future Oscar winner among its student films.
Israeli intellectual and former Knesset member Dov Sadan dies at the age of 87.
Singer Hagit Yaso, a winner of Israel’s version of “American Idol,” is born in Sderot to parents who escaped poor conditions in an Ethiopian village by walking four months through the desert to reach Sudan and fly to Israel.
July 8, 1989 Israeli judo champion Yarden Gerbi is born in Kfar Saba. Her success in national and international competitions includes a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. At age…
June 22, 1989 Basketball player Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the National Basketball Association, is born in Holon to parents of Moroccan heritage. He grows up in Yavne and plays for Israeli…
Maccabi Tel-Aviv defeats the CSKA Red Army team 97-92 in a basketball game in Moscow.
March 22, 1988 The Knesset repeals a British Mandate-era law banning sex between people of the same gender and thereby legalizes homosexuality in Israel. The repeal is part of a package of sex and sex-crime…
