Maccabi Tel Aviv Wins Its First European Basketball ChampionshipCIE+
Maccabi Tel Aviv defeats Mobilgirgi Varese 78-77 to win its first Euro-League basketball championship.
Tennis Star Jonathan Erlich Is Born in ArgentinaCIE+
Professional tennis player Jonathan Erlich, known as Yoni, is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 5, 1977.
Miriam Ben-Porat Is Appointed Supreme Court JusticeCIE+
Judges Miriam Ben-Porat and Shimon Asher are appointed to Israel’s Supreme Court by President Ephraim Katzir. Ben-Porat is the first woman to serve as a judge in Israel’s highest court.
World Chess Olympiad Opens in HaifaCIE+
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the president of the International Chess Federation, Max Euwe, open the 22nd men’s and seventh women’s Chess Olympiad in Haifa despite opposition from many FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) member nations and a boycott led by the favored Soviet Union.
Politician Tamar Zandberg Is BornCIE+
April 29, 1976 Politician Tamar Zandberg of the left-wing Meretz party is born in Ramat Gan. She is first elected to the 19th Knesset in 2013, then wins a place in the 20th, 21st, 22nd…
6 Israeli Arabs Killed in Land ProtestsCIE+
March 30, 1976 Protests against the recently announced expropriation of Arab land in the Galilee turn into riots that result in the deaths of six Israeli Arabs and injuries to hundreds of Arab civilians and…
Music Star Udi Davidi Is BornCIE+
April 25, 1975 Singer-songwriter-musician Ehud “Udi” Davidi is born. He grows up in Kedumim, a settlement established in the northern West Bank by the Gush Emunim movement, and is active in the Bnei Akiva youth…
Paralympic Gold Medalist Keren Leibovitch Is BornCIE+
Competitive swimmer Keren Leibovitch is born in Hod Ha’sharon, near Tel-Aviv. Considered Israel’s greatest Paralympian, Leibovitch wins four gold medals, two silver medals, and a bronze medal in Paralympic swimming competitions in 2000 and 2004.
Conductor Otto Klemperer DiesCIE+
July 6, 1973 Otto Klemperer, a legendary German Jewish conductor and composer, dies at 88 at home in Zurich. Born in 1885 in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), Klemperer began playing music at age 4….
Poet Avraham Shlonsky DiesCIE+
Avraham Shlonsky, renowned Israeli poet, editor, and translator, passes away in Tel Aviv at the age of 73.
Israel Fourth in First Eurovision BidCIE+
April 7, 1973 Israel’s first-ever entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, Ilanit with the song “Ey-sham,” finishes fourth out of 17 nations, while host country Luxembourg wins for the second consecutive year. The music…
Israeli Olympic Team Is Massacred in MunichCIE+
During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team are killed after being taken hostage by Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah and the left-wing terrorist group The Red Army.
Soccer Star Avi Nimni Is BornCIE+
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 MilkCIE+
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…
First El Al Flight Departs for London and New York
After several days of training and an official dedication by Prime Minister Golda Meir, the first El Al flight, using a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, departs from Lod Airport for London and New York.
Israeli Black Panthers Meet With Prime Minister Meir About Mizrahi JewsCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 DiesCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 BroadcastingCIE+
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 HebronCIE+
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 PlaceCIE+
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 FestivalCIE+
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.
Writer Yitzhak Dov Berkowitz DiesCIE+
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…
