November 24, 2006 Benny Sela, convicted in 2000 of being the “Tel Aviv serial rapist,” escapes while being transported to a court hearing in Tel Aviv. While handcuffed, he eludes two police guards and scales…
More than 3,000 spectators attend the Ten Dance European Cup, the first international dance sports competition to be held in Israel.
Sarah Levy-Tanai, one of Israel’s foremost choreographers and contributors to Israeli cultural life, dies in her mid-90s.
Forty-nine participants from 11 countries gather in Haifa for a five-day NATO conference on mass-casualty medical preparedness. The conference is NATO’s first-ever event held in Israel.
Israeli writer, playwright, and film writer/director Ephraim Kishon passes away at the age of 80 in Switzerland.
Led by Israeli television personality Tommy Lapid, Shinui (change), wins fifteen seats in the 2003 Israeli election.
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.
Israeli composer Menachem Avidom, whose work helps lay the groundwork for future Mizrahi and Sephardi (Middle Eastern Jewish) music in Israel, dies 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…
May 12, 1992 Doron Erel, the 33-year-old son of Holocaust survivors who made aliyah on the Exodus 1947, becomes the first Israeli to reach the summit of Mount Everest in an expedition with 13 other…
