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.
Arab Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi Is Born
May 23, 1969 Pioneering Knesset member Hanin Zoabi is born into a Muslim family in Nazareth. Zoabi earns a bachelor’s in philosophy and psychology from the University of Haifa and a master’s from the Hebrew…
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…
Prominent Israeli Politician Tzipi Livni Is Born
Tzipi Livni is born in Tel Aviv to two prominent figures of the Irgun. A graduate of Bar-Ilan University’s school of law, she later serves in the Israeli Army, Mossad, and works as an attorney before entering politics.
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…
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.
Dalia Itzik Is Born
Dalia Itzik is born in Jerusalem to a family of Iraqi immigrants. In the Seventeenth Knesset (2006), she becomes the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Knesset.
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…
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.
Poet Elisheva Bikhovsky Dies
March 27, 1949 Elisheva Bikhovsky, one of the “four mothers” of modern Hebrew poetry, dies of cancer at age 60 in Tiberias and is buried at Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz. A native of Russia with…
Golda Meir Secretly Meets With King Abdullah in Amman
The second secret meeting between the two is a last-ditch effort to persuade Transjordan to stay out of an impending war with the soon-to-be declared State of Israel.
Early U.S. Zionist Leader Emma Gotthiel Dies
Emma Gottheil, one of the first and most important women in Zionist leaders, passes away at her New York home at the age of 85.
Nazis Kill Palmach Paratrooper Haviva Reik
November 20, 1944 Haviva Reik and two other paratroopers from British Mandatory Palestine are among about 40 Jewish fighters executed by the Nazis after the suppression of an uprising in Slovakia. Reik, who was born…
Hannah Senesh Is Executed
Hannah Senesh (Szenes), the poet and Haganah fighter who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue Jews, is executed by Hungarian firing squad in a Budapest prison courtyard.
Composer Nurit Hirsch Is Born
August 13, 1942 Nurit Hirsch, a musician and composer, is born in Tel Aviv. From a young age, she plays piano at a theater, a ballet studio and a quartet club. She plays in a…
Supreme Court Justice Dorit Beinisch Born
February 28, 1942 Dorit Beinisch, the ninth president of Israel’s Supreme Court, is born Dorit Werba in Tel Aviv to a father who works as a civil servant after arriving from Poland in the 1930s…
Ada Yonath Is Born
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Ada Yonath is born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Jerusalem, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine.
Recha Freier Establishes Foundations of Youth Aliyah
The same day that Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg, Recha Freier establishes the Committee for the Assistance of Jewish Youth.
Actress Haya Harareet Is Born
September 20, 1931 Actress Haya Harareet, best known as Judah Ben-Hur’s love interest Esther in the 1959 remake of “Ben-Hur,” is born Haya Neuberg in Haifa to Polish immigrants who arrived in Mandatory Palestine when…
Meretz Founder Shulamit Aloni Is Born
November 29, 1928 Shulamit Aloni, the lawyer and politician who founds the Meretz party, is born in Tel Aviv. From a young age, Aloni is involved with politics and is relentless in working to bring…
Tehiya Founder Geulah Cohen Is Born
December 25, 1925 Politician and activist Geulah Cohen, the founder of the Tehiya party, is born in Tel Aviv. Cohen becomes involved with political movements in Mandatory Palestine when she is young, and she joins…
Israeli Film Pioneer Lia Van Leer Is Born
A pioneer in Israeli film, Lia Van Leer is born Lia Greenberg in Beltsy, Romania (today Moldova).
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…
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).
