Actress Hanna Maron Is Born
November 22, 1923 Hannele Meierzak, who as Hanna Maron becomes known as “the first lady of Israeli theater,” is born in Berlin. As a child, she appears in many plays and films, including an uncredited…
Hasidic Zionist Rabbi Friedman Ben-Shalom Is Born
November 8, 1923 Rabbi Yisrael Meir Friedman Ben-Shalom, a sixth-generation descendant of Rebbe Yisrael of Rizin, is born in Bohush, Romania, to a Hasidic and Zionist family. Friedman Ben-Shalom joins Hashomer Hatzair, the secular Zionist…
Gush Shalom Founder Uri Avnery Is Born
September 10, 1923 Journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery is born Helmut Ostermann in Beckum, Germany. After Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933, Uri’s father, an upper-class Zionist, moves the family to Haifa, then…
Opera Launched in Palestine
July 28, 1923 Mordechai Golinkin’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” marks the beginning of opera in Mandatory Palestine. Because Palestine has no opera house, the performance is in a movie theater. Golinkin, who wrote…
Supreme Court Justice Shoshana Netanyahu Is Born
Retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Shoshana Netanyahu, the second woman to serve on Israel’s highest court, is born in the free city of Danzig (Gdnask, Poland).
Writer Yosef Haim Brenner Is Murdered
Yosef Haim Brenner, a pioneer of Modern Hebrew Literature, is murdered by an Arab gang during the 1921 Jaffa Riots.
Mossad’s Meir Amit Born
March 17, 1921 Meir Amit, a career soldier who builds the Mossad into an internationally renowned intelligence agency, is born Meir Slutzky on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias. He attends agricultural…
Yishuv Publishes Its First Medical Journal: Harefuah
The first Hebrew language medical journal in Palestine, “HaRufuah,” is published quarterly by the Jewish Medical Association of Palestine. The journal is still published monthly by the Israel Medical Association and distributed to all its members free of charge.
Swimmer Judith Deutsch Is Born
September 18, 1918 Champion swimmer Judith Deutsch is born in Vienna, Austria. Most Austrian athletic clubs ban her because she is Jewish, so she begins swimming with a Jewish club, Hakoah Vienna. Between 1933 and…
Composer Leonard Bernstein Is Born
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Ukrainian-Jewish parents, Leonard Bernstein is one of the most prolific composers and conductors in American history.
General, Archaeologist Yigael Yadin Is Born
March 20, 1917 Yigael Yadin, a general known for his archaeological work, is born in Jerusalem. His father is an archaeologist, and his mother is a women’s rights activist. Yadin joins the Haganah when he…
Poet Zelda Is Born
Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky (known simply as “Zelda”), one of the most widely acclaimed and beloved Israeli poets, is born in Russia.
Arthur Ruppin Purchases Land for Hebrew University
Arthur Ruppin, head of the Palestine Office of the World Zionist Organization, purchases the estate of Sir John Gray Hill on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem for the purpose of building a university.
Kupat Holim Clalit Is Established
At the urging of Berl Katznelson, a proposal is passed among Zionist leadership creating the Kupat Holim Clalit (General Sick Fund), a still present healthcare organization in Israel.
Poet Leah Goldberg Is Born
May 29, 1911 Poet Leah Goldberg is born in Königsberg, Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia. Raised mostly in Kovno, Lithuania, Goldberg begins writing poetry in Hebrew and Russian around age 12. She studies at the Universities…
Writer Natan Alterman Is Born
August 14, 1910 Natan Alterman, a poet, journalist, translator, author and playwright, is born in Warsaw. He moves to Tel Aviv with his family in 1925. He studies agriculture in France and briefly works at…
Children’s Author Miriam Roth Born
February 16, 1910 Miriam Roth, whose Hebrew writing elevates children’s literature in Israel, is born in the Slovakian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She attends various Jewish schools, including one run by her father, and…
Tel Aviv Is Founded
Sixty-six families gathered on the sand dunes outside of Jaffa and selected lots for property in a new neighborhood called Ahuzat Bayit (“Homestead”) that became the first modern Jewish city, Tel Aviv.
Actor Meir Margalit Is Born
May 3, 1906 Stage actor Meir Margalit, a winner of the Israel Prize in 1964, is born in Ostroleka, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. Margalit begins acting in local plays at age 13….
Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts Opens
The first 40 students, all women, enroll in the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem.
Israel Museum Founder Eliyahu Dobkin Is Born
December 31, 1898 Eliyahu Dobkin, a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Israel Museum, is born in Bobruysk, Belarus. Dobkin is raised in a religious Zionist family. His father,…
Painter Nachum Gutman Born
Painter Nachum Gutman is born in a part of Russia that is now Moldova.
Gershom Scholem Is Born
Gershom Scholem, the pre-eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, is born in Berlin. He immigrates to the Land of Israel in 1923.
Dada Artist Marcel Janco Is Born
May 24, 1895 Marcel Janco, a founder of the Dada movement and a major influence on modern Israeli art, is born into a wealthy family outside the Jewish quarter of Bucharest, Romania. Trained at the…
