Soccer Star Avi Nimni Is Born
April 26, 1972 Avi Nimni, considered one of the greatest players ever for the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club, is born in the Holon section of Tel Aviv. Nimni joins Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth program…
Black Panthers Steal, Distribute Milk
March 14, 1972 Israel’s Black Panthers, a social justice group that seeks equality for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, steal crates of milk meant for wealthy Jerusalem neighborhoods and hand them out across poor neighborhoods to…
Israeli Black Panthers Meet With Prime Minister Meir About Mizrahi Jews
Emerging in the early seventies, to protest against the social injustices felt by the Mizrahi Jews in Israel, the Black Panthers staged a number of demonstrations in the country and began to generate widespread support.
Singer Eyal Golan Is Born
April 12, 1971 Singer Eyal Golan is born Eyal Biton in Rehovot, Israel, to a family of Yemenite and Moroccan Jewish ancestry. He lives in Rehovot until 2010, when he moves to Tel Aviv. Known…
Writer Avigdor Hameiri Dies
April 3, 1970 Hebrew poet and novelist Avigdor Hameiri, Israel’s first poet laureate, dies at age 79. Born into a farm family in a small Hungarian village, Hameiri had a typical Jewish education and was…
Writer-Musician Assaf Gavron Is Born
December 21, 1968 Assaf Gavron, a writer and musician, is born in Arad to English immigrants. Gavron spends his childhood in Motza Illit, near Jerusalem. He studies media and communication at Goldsmiths’ College in London…
Channel 1 Starts Broadcasting
May 2, 1968 Israel’s first general-interest television network begins broadcasting at 9:30 a.m. with an image of a menorah, followed by an aerial view of Jerusalem and, at 9:40, the national Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day)…
Jewish Settlement Established at Hebron
April 4, 1968 Moshe Levinger and several other Israeli Jews pretending to be Swiss tourists check into a Hebron hotel to establish the first permanent Jewish presence in the city in almost 40 years, taking…
Mount Scopus Concert Takes Place
A packed audience fills the amphitheater on Mount Scopus to celebrate the end of the June 1967 War and to mark the cultural unification of Jerusalem.
“Jerusalem of Gold” Premieres at Israel Song Festival
The Voice of Israel Song Festival was created in 1960 as part of Israel’s Independence Day celebration and as an opportunity to showcase Israel’s emerging culture.
Yitzhak Dov Berkowitz Dies
March 29, 1967 Russian-born writer Yitzhak Dov Berkowitz, who won the Bialik Prize, Israel Prize and Tchernichovsky Prize for Translation, dies after a short illness at age 82. Born in 1885 near Minsk, Berkowitz read…
Physicist Giulio Racah Dies
August 28, 1965 Physicist Giulio Racah, a winner of the Israel Prize, dies at age 56 during a visit to Florence, Italy. The cause of death is believed to be asphyxiation by a faulty gas…
Israel Museum Opens in Jerusalem
The concept of a national museum originated in the early years of Zionist settlement in the Yishuv. Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, opened the Bezalel Museum in 1912.
Bones of Moshe Hess Brought to Israel
Moshe Hess, a 19th century Zionist, is reburied in the Kibbutz Kinneret cemetery beside other fathers of socialist Zionism.
All-Time Miss Israel Illana Shoshan Is Born
April 14, 1961 Illana Shoshan, who wins the 1980 Miss Israel title after finishing second in the 1978 teen pageant, is born in Kfar Saba, Israel. In a public vote held in 2010 to celebrate…
Wadi Salib Riots Begin
July 9, 1959 Riots break out in the impoverished Haifa neighborhood of Wadi Salib after police officers shoot resident Yaakov Elkarif during an attempt to arrest him for being drunk and disorderly. Witnesses dispute whether…
Singer Ofra Haza Is Born
November 19, 1957 Singer Ofra Haza, the youngest of nine children, is born in Tel Aviv to a family who had emigrated from Yemen. Haza grows up in the impoverished Hatikvah Quarter, where she is…
Conductor Shlomo Mintz Is Born
Shlomo Mintz, violinist and conductor, is born in Moscow.
Yiddish Writer Sholem Asch Dies
July 10, 1957 Yiddish novelist and playwright Sholem Asch dies at age 76 in London. Asch was born in Kutno in Russian-controlled Poland in 1880 as the youngest of 10 children in a Hasidic family….
Eilat Mazar Is Born
Eilat Mazar, a third generation Israeli archaeologist, is most well-known for her work at the City of David site in Jerusalem. She is a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University.
Writer Gadi Taub Is Born
April 19, 1956 Writer and academic Gadi Taub, a leading commentator on the meaning of modern Zionism, is born in Jerusalem. Taub’s grandparents were Zionist pioneers who arrived in Palestine in the 1920s during the…
Hadassah Medical Center Breaks Ground
June 5, 1952 Having been forced to evacuate its campus on Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus after the massacre of 78 medical people April 13, 1948, Hadassah breaks ground on the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center at…
Rock Star Yoni Rechter Is Born
November 18, 1951 Yoni Rechter, considered one of Israel’s greatest musicians, is born in Tel Aviv. He is the son of architect Ya’akov Rechter and stepson of actress Hanna Maron. He pursues music as a…
Filmmaker Amos Gitai Born in Haifa
Filmmaker Amos Gitai, known for documentaries and features on the Middle East, the Israeli-Arab conflict and Holocaust memory in Europe, is born to architect Munio Weinraub and teacher Efratia Margalit in Haifa.
