Deni Avdija, 2001-
Avdija, the son of an Israeli Jewish mother who was an athlete and a Kosovo-born Israeli Muslim who was a professional basketball player, is a small forward for the NBA’s Washington Wizards, who drafted him…
Shlomo Avineri, 1933-2023
Avineri, a native of Poland, was one of Israel’s premier political scientists as a Hebrew University professor and wrote extensively on the history of political philosophy, including Marx, Engels, Hegel, Zionism, colonialism and the Soviet…
Mira Awad, 1975-
An Arab Christian from the Galilee, Awad is a star singer and actress. She was educated in Tel Aviv before moving to Tel Aviv. In 2009 she became the first Arab and Christian to represent…
Gabriel Baer, 1919-1982
Baer, who escaped Germany in 1933, was a scholar of the social history of the modern Middle East, particularly Egypt, as well as the late Ottoman Empire. As a Hebrew University professor in African and…
Arthur Balfour, 1848-1930
Balfour, an English politician and diplomat who served as the British prime minister from 1902 to 1905, was the foreign secretary in November 1917 when he sent a letter to Lord Rothschild that became known…
Aharon Barak, 1936-
Lithuania-born Barak was a 28-year Supreme Court justice who served as the president of the court from 1995 to 2006. He lifted restrictions on individual petitions to the court and strengthened the judiciary’s authority to…
Ehud Barak, 1942-
As Israel’s 10th prime minister and last from the Labor Party from 1999 to 2001, Barak ended the occupation of southern Lebanon, participated in the 2000 Camp David talks, was rebuffed by Yasser Arafat in…
Salo Wittmayer Baron, 1895-1989
Born in Poland, Baron emerged as one of the greatest Jewish historians of the 20th century. He opposed the “lachrymose conception of Jewish history,” which focused on Jewish suffering. Baron’s “Social and Religious History of…
Noah Barou, 1889-1955
Born in Ukraine, Barou was a trade unionist and political activist who was active in Poalei Zion. After that group broke with the new Soviet authorities, he moved to London, where he helped found the…
Netta Barzilai, 1993-
Barzilai, who performs mononymously as Netta, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 with “Toy,” making her the fourth Israeli victor. She first gained fame by winning Season 5 of reality competition “HaKokhav HaBa.” Barzilai’s…
Shulamit Bat-Dori, 1904-1985
Born in Warsaw and known as Mita, Bat-Dori immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1923 and brought theater to kibbutzim as an actress, playwright and theater director. Her plays targeted political issues, such as…
Yocheved Bat-Miriam, 1901-1980
Bat-Miriam, born in Belarus, is considered one of the four “mother poets” of modern Hebrew. Her 1937 book, “Eretz Yisrael,” examines the Land of Israel as a woman. She wrote many poems about biblical women…
Fritz Bauer, 1903-1968
Bauer was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor before and after World War II. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1933, lived in Denmark from 1936 to 1943, then escaped to neutral Sweden. He…
Menachem Begin, 1913-1992
Born in Belarus, Begin joined the Revisionist Betar movement and escaped Nazis and Soviets to reach Palestine. He led the Irgun, then spent three decades in the political opposition, including arguing against German reparations. In…
Dorit Beinisch, 1942-
Beinisch became the first female president of the Supreme Court in 2006 after serving over 10 years as a justice. She also was the first woman to serve as state attorney, the highest nonpolitical role…
David Ben-Gurion, 1886-1973
Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister and its leading political force for two decades. Born in Poland, he arrived in Palestine in 1907. He formed socialist-leaning Mapai, the dominant political party, in 1930 and became…
Miriam Ben-Porat, 1918-2012
A native of Belarus who grew up in Lithuania and made aliyah in 1936, Ben-Porat in 1977 became the first woman appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court and the first to serve on the highest…
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, 1858-1922
Ben-Yehuda was born in Belarus and moved to Palestine in 1881. He championed the use of modernized Hebrew as an essential element of Zionism. He edited Hebrew newspapers, created the first modern Hebrew dictionary and…
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 1884-1963
Before becoming Israel’s second and longest-serving president in 1952, Ukraine-born Ben-Zvi co-founded Yishuv self-defense groups Bar Giora and Hashomer. He became a Poalei Zion leader after immigrating to Palestine in 1907. He was prominent in…
Naftali Bennett, 1972-
Israel’s 13th prime minister, Bennett was born in Haifa to U.S. immigrants. He was an IDF Sayeret Matkal commando and a software entrepreneur. He became the leader of the settler-supported Jewish Home party in 2012…
Mordechai Bentov, 1900-1985
Born in Poland, Bentov was a writer and Knesset member who immigrated to Palestine in 1920. He founded the Mapam newspaper Al Hamishmar. He attended Zionist Congresses and was part of the Jewish Agency‘s U.N….
Leonard Bernstein, 1918-1990
Born in Massachusetts to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Bernstein was a prominent pianist, conductor and humanitarian. His longtime association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra began with a concert he conducted in Tel Aviv in 1947. Among…
Orna Berry, 1949-
A computer scientist and tech entrepreneur, Berry has been a driver of innovation and received Ben-Gurion University’s 2012 Yakirat Ha’Negev award for excellence in technology. In 1996 she became the first female chief scientist at…
Chaim Nahman Bialik, 1873-1934
Bialik, recognized as Israel’s national poet, was born in Ukraine and moved to Palestine in 1924. After interviewing survivors of the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom, he wrote “Be-Ir ha-Haregah” (“In the City of Slaughter”), in which…
