Sigalit Landau, 1969-
Landau is a Jerusalem-born artist who studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, then worked in the United States and United Kingdom. Her pieces are multimedia, including drawing, sculpture, video and performance. She…
Tom Lantos, 1928-2008
A native of Hungary, Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, representing California in the House from 1981 to 2008. Steven Spielberg’s documentary “The Last Days” featured Lantos’ life story. He was…
Yair Lapid, 1963-
Born in Tel Aviv, Lapid followed the path of his father, Tommy, in gaining fame as a journalist, then moving into politics with a vision for a secular government. Lapid worked for Channel 1 and…
Yisrael Meir Lau, 1937-
The youngest survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Lau arrived in the Land of Israel with a brother in 1945. He was the chief rabbi of Netanya from 1978 to 1988 and of Tel Aviv…
Naomi Lauter, 1930-2017
Recruited by Si Kenen, Lauter worked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in San Francisco for more than 50 years, from chief volunteer recruiter to regional director to a consultant training staff across the…
Emma Lazarus, 1849-1887
Jewish poet Lazarus’ words, taken from “The New Colossus,” are on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She wrote some of…
Yehudah Leib Levin, 1844-1925
A Belarus native, Levin was a Jewish Enlightenment poet who wrote in Hebrew on socialist themes. Concerned with Jewish lives in Russia, Levin wrote one of his most famous poems, “Daniyel be-gov ha-arayot” (“Daniel in…
Moshe Levinger, 1935-2015
Jerusalem native Levinger was a leader in the settler movement. He brought 30 families to a Hebron hotel in June 1968 to demand and win the right to establish the first permanent Jewish presence in…
Sarah Levy-Tanai, 1910-2005
One of Israel’s foremost choreographers and a 1973 Israel Prize winner, Levy-Tanai also produced plays and drew inspiration from her Mizrahi roots in her art. A Jerusalem native who was largely raised in orphanages, she…
Bernard Lewis, 1916-2018
Orientalist scholar Lewis, a London native who finished his academic career at Princeton, influenced American foreign policy and the West’s attitudes toward the Middle East. He backed U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. His “Lewis…
Samuel Lewis, 1930-2014
Lewis served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985, second in tenure to Walworth Barbour. He played an important part in brokering Israeli-Egyptian peace and provided the on-site U.S. response to the…
Avigdor Liberman, 1958-
A two-time foreign minister, Liberman was the finance minister in the coalition formed in June 2021. Born in Moldova, Liberman arrived in Israel in 1978. He worked closely with Benjamin Netanyahu before splitting with him…
Ephraim Moses Lilien, 1874-1925
Born in Galicia, Lilien was an art nouveau illustrator and lithographer who co-founded the Berlin Jiidischer Verlag, the premier Jewish and Zionist publishing house in Western Europe, in 1902. He highlighted Jewish themes and often…
Moshe Leib Lilienblum, 1843-1910
A scholar and author born in Lithuania, Lilienblum embraced the Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia after the pogroms of 1881 and served as secretary of an Odesa committee on Palestine settlement. His…
