Abba Eban, 1915-2002
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, who was raised in England and made aliyah in 1944, Eban was a diplomat, politician and writer. With the Jewish Agency’s U.N. delegation, he was heavily involved in…
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
Einstein was a Zionist who wrote about the importance of Jewish nationalism in 1921. The physicist credited Zionism with strengthening the Jewish community, though he preferred a binational Palestine to partition. He raised money for…
Arik Einstein, 1939-2013
Einstein has been called the most important man in Israeli music. Combining folk and rock, Einstein’s music has been celebrated since his first album in 1960 and still influences pop. He introduced rock to Israel,…
Shmuel Eisenstadt, 1923-2010
Warsaw-born Eisenstadt was an internationally acclaimed sociologist noted for enhancing understanding of cultures and civilizations. Aside from guest professorships, he spent his career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, including time as department chairman and…
Eliahu Elath, 1903-1990
A Ukraine-born journalist, politician and diplomat, Elath arrived in the Land of Israel in 1924, joined the Jewish Agency in 1934, and became Israel’s first ambassador to the United States and, when the diplomatic post…
Itzhak Elazari-Volcani, 1880-1955
An agronomist from Lithuania who moved to Palestine in 1908, Elazari-Volcani was a Hapoel Hatzair leader who advocated settlement by Jewish labor. He taught farming and advised the Zionist Organization and Palestine Office on agriculture….
Karine Elharrar, 1977-
Elharrar became Israel’s minister of infrastructure, energy and water at the formation of the coalition government led by Naftali Bennett in 2021. She had been a member of the Knesset from the Yesh Atid party…
Levi Eshkol, 1895-1969
Eshkol, Israel’s third prime minister, was a farm worker after arriving from Ukraine in 1914. He organized labor and became a Mapai and Jewish Agency leader. He raised money for arms and for immigrant absorption….
Akiva Ettinger, 1872-1945
Belarus-born agricultural settlement leader Ettinger encouraged Jewish families to live on the land outside capitalist society. He served as director general of the Jewish Colonization Association in South America and in a leadership role for…
