Orna Barbivai Becomes First Female IDF Major General
Brigadier General Orna Barbivai is promoted to the rank of major general, becoming the highest-ranking female officer in the history of the IDF.
Spy Shulamit Cohen-Kishik Dies
May 21, 2017 Former Mossad agent Shulamit “Shula” Cohen-Kishik dies at age 100 at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. She was born in Buenos Aires and raised between the Argentinian capital and Jerusalem. At…
Actress Orna Porat Dies
August 6, 2015 Stage and screen actress Orna Porat dies at age 91 in Tel Aviv. She was born Irene Klein, a German Christian, near Cologne in 1924. She turned toward atheism and socialism in…
Buses Promoting Women of the Wall Are Attacked
Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men hurl rocks at and slash the tires of buses bearing ads on their sides promoting female worship at the Western Wall.
Fashion Designer Leah Gottlieb Dies
Israeli businesswoman and fashion pioneer Leah Gottlieb passes away in her Tel-Aviv home at the age of 94.
Knesset Passes “Photoshop Law”
The Knesset adopts the “Photoshop Law” to prevent adult fashion and commercial models from losing weight to the detriment of their health, or appearing unhealthily underweight in ads, negatively effecting body image issues amongst Israelis.
Biologist Yoel Margalith Passes Away
Yoel Margalith was born in February 1933 in Cantavir, Yugoslavia. After surviving the Holocaust, Margalith immigrated to Israel with his mother and sister in 1948.
Crystallographer Yonath Wins Nobel in Chemistry
Ada Yonath was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Jerusalem, then under the British Mandate. Yonath’s family was poor and lived in a four-room apartment that they shared with two other families.
Helene’s Palace Believed to Be Found
December 6, 2007 An Israeli archaeological dig discovers the remains of a 2,000-year-old mansion in the Old City of Jerusalem that is believed to have belonged to Queen Helene of Adiabene. Archaeologists say the building…
Choreographer Sarah Levy-Tanai Dies
Sarah Levy-Tanai, one of Israel’s foremost choreographers and contributors to Israeli cultural life, dies in her mid-90s.
Musician Naomi Shemer Dies
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…
Leah Rabin Dies
Leah Rabin, peace advocate and widow of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, passes away at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikvah after battling cancer.
Archaeologist Claire Epstein Dies
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.
Top Officer Stella Levy Dies
July 19, 1999 Stella Levy, who commanded the Women’s Corps of the Israel Defense Forces in the 1960s and briefly served in the Knesset, dies. She was born in French Mandatory Syria in 1924 and…
Dana International Wins Eurovision
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…
Cave of Machpelah Massacre Takes Place
Baruch Goldstein, an American immigrant and member of the radical Kach party, opens fire on Muslim worshippers in Hebron, killing thirty and wounding 125 before being beaten to death by survivors.
Yael Arad Wins Israel’s First Olympic Medal
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…
Israeli Idol Hagit Yaso Born
Singer Hagit Yaso, a winner of Israel’s version of “American Idol,” is born in Sderot to parents who escaped poor conditions in an Ethiopian village by walking four months through the desert to reach Sudan and fly to Israel.
Judo Champ Yarden Gerbi Is Born
July 8, 1989 Israeli judo champion Yarden Gerbi is born in Kfar Saba. Her success in national and international competitions includes a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. At age…
Tennis Player Shahar Pe’er Is Born
Shahar Pe’er, the highest ranked professional tennis player in Israel’s history, is born in Jerusalem.
Mordechai Vanunu Returns to Israel
Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician who leaked details of Israel’s nuclear program to the British press, is extradited to Israel, one day after an undercover female Mossad agent posing as an American lured him to Italy from London.
Actress Hanna Rovina Dies
February 3, 1980 Acclaimed actress Hanna Rovina dies in Ra’anana at age 91. Her body lies in state the next day at the Habima Theatre, and she is eulogized by Shimon Finkel as “the high…
American Zionist Leader Rose Luria Halprin Dies
Rose Luria Halprin, who served twice as the national president of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, passes away at the age of 83 in New York.
Miriam Ben-Porat Is Appointed Supreme Court Justice
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.
