Ben-Gurion Dies at Age 87
David Ben-Gurion, (born David Gruen) Israel’s first Prime Minister passes away at the Tel Hashomer-Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Aviv at the age of 87.
Poet Avraham Shlonsky Dies
Avraham Shlonsky, renowned Israeli poet, editor, and translator, passes away in Tel Aviv at the age of 73.
Refuseniks Arrested Before Flight
June 15, 1970 A dozen Soviet dissidents are arrested at Leningrad’s Smolnoye Airport just before boarding a 12-seat Antonov AN-2 aircraft for an attempt to fly to freedom. Also arrested are four conspirators in the…
Findings of Jewish Quarter Excavation Revealed
December 3, 1969 Hebrew University archaeologist Nahman Avigad announces the results of his excavation of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, an area Israel captured from Jordanian forces during the June 1967…
Mount Scopus Concert Takes Place
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.
Zalman Shazar Is Elected as Israel’s Third President
Shazar, a drafter of Israeli’s declaration of Independence who had helped Jews make Aliyah from Russia in the 1920s, becomes Israel’s third President.
Hausner Requests Death Penalty for Adolf Eichmann
Israel’s Attorney General Gideon Hausner addresses the three presiding judges and demands the death penalty for Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi’s Final Solution.
Bones of Moshe Hess Brought to Israel
Moshe Hess, a 19th century Zionist, is reburied in the Kibbutz Kinneret cemetery beside other fathers of socialist Zionism.
Museum Marks First Official Yom HaShoah
May 5, 1959 Some 2,500 people, including Israeli Interior Minister Israel Bar-Yehuda and Polish Ambassador Antoni Bida, gather at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot in the western Galilee for a commemoration of the first Yom HaShoah (Holocaust…
Kastner Is Found Not Guilty
Dr. Israel (Rudolf) Kastner, who had been accused of collaborating with the Nazis in the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry, is cleared of any wrongdoing by Israel’s Supreme Court.
Albert Einstein Passes Away
World famous scientist and Zionist supporter Albert Einstein passes away at Princeton Hospital.
Intellectual Selig Brodetsky Dies
Shortly after assuming the Presidency of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Selig Brodetsky suffered a major heart attack.
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Is Inaugurated as Israel’s Second President
At the end of the traditional thirty-day mourning period for Israel’s first President Chaim Weizmann, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi is inaugurated as Israel’s second President in a Knesset ceremony.
First President Chaim Weizmann Dies
Chaim Weizmann, a leader of the Zionist movement and the first president of the State of Israel, dies in Rehovot after a yearlong illness.
Knesset Passes Resolution for Creating Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day)
A resolution was passed by the Knesset, establishing the 27th day of Nisan as Yom Hashoah (“Holocaust Memorial Day”), a memorial day for the Jews who were victims to the Nazis.
Third Maccabiah Games Begin
The Third Maccabiah Games commence in the 50,000-seat stadium in Ramat Gan, Israel.
Iraq Allows Jews to Leave
March 3, 1950 The Iraqi government retracts a policy banning emigration to move to Israel, on the condition that Jews give up their Iraqi citizenship when they leave the country. In addition, those who previously…
Herzl’s Body Is Reburied in Israel
August 17, 1949 Theodor Herzl, who was buried in Vienna after his death July 20, 1904, is reburied along with his wife and parents on the Jerusalem hill that is renamed Mount Herzl in his…
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise Passes Away
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a stalwart of American Zionism and the Reform movement, passes away at the age of 75.
Historian Benny Morris Is Born
December 8, 1948 Benny Morris, a renowned Israeli professor of history, is born on a kibbutz in Ein HaHoresh to diplomat Ya’akov Morris and journalist Sadie Morris. Morris spends some time in the United States…
Israel Adopts State Flag
The iconic flag with two blue stripes and a blue Star of David at its center becomes the official Israeli flag more than five months after the establishment of the state.
Israel Declares Independence
On Friday afternoon in the Tel Aviv Museum, David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Provisional State Council, declares Israel’s independence. The United States is the first country to recognize the new and already besieged state of Israel.
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.
Haganah Seizes Haifa
April 22, 1948 As communal violence increases with the approaching departure of British troops and expected declaration of Israeli independence, the Haganah seizes Haifa, and as many as 25,000 Arabs flee the city, possibly in…
