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…
Golda Meir Resigns as Prime MinisterCIE+
Following a week of intense public debate and finger pointing, Prime Minister Golda Meir announced that she was resign as leader of the country at a Labor Party meeting.
Paralympic Gold Medalist Keren Leibovitch Is Born
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.
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…
Arab Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi Is BornCIE+
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…
“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.
All-Time Miss Israel Illana Shoshan Is BornCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 GroundCIE+
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 HaifaCIE+
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 DiesCIE+
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 AmmanCIE+
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.
LGBTQ Leader Gila Goldstein Is BornCIE+
December 18, 1947 Actress, singer and transgender-rights activist Gila Goldstein is born as Abraham Goldstein in Turin, Italy. Goldstein immigrates to Haifa as a child and is active with the Maccabi Haifa soccer club. Goldstein…
Early U.S. Zionist Leader Emma Gotthiel DiesCIE+
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 ReikCIE+
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 ExecutedCIE+
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 BornCIE+
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 BornCIE+
Dorit Beinisch, the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court, is born in Tel Aviv.
Actress Gila Almagor Is Born
July 22, 1939 Gila Almagor, known as the “queen of the Israeli cinema and theater,” is born as Gila Alexandrowitz in Haifa four months after an Arab sniper killed her father, a policeman who immigrated…
Nobel-Winning Scientist Ada Yonath Is BornCIE+
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 Youth Aliyah in GermanyCIE+
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.
