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…
Judah Magnes, 1877-1948
Born in the San Francisco Bay area, Magnes was ordained as a rabbi in 1900 and helped found such U.S. organizations as the American Jewish Committee and American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. An advocate of…
Hannah Maisel-Shohat, 1890-1972
Maisel-Shohat was born in Belarus, where she was jailed for Zionist activities. She studied and trained for agriculture before moving in 1909 to Palestine, where she advocated women’s roles in farming and started agricultural institutions…
Ehud Manor, 1941-2005
Manor was a singer, songwriter, and TV and radio host. He wrote more than 1,200 songs, including the 1978 Eurovision winner, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi.” Many songs reacted to events such as the June 1967 war and the…
Bernie Marcus, 1929-2024
Home Depot co-founder Marcus has devoted much of his philanthropy to Israel and to organizations supporting Israel. Examples within Israel include the Israel Democracy Institute and Magen David Adom’s underground blood storage facility in Ramle….
Haim Margalit-Kalvarisky, 1868-1947
Margalit-Kalvarisky was an agronomist who purchased tracts in the Galilee and served as an administrator for the Jewish Colonization Association. He advised the British authorities and served in the Yishuv leadership in the 1920s. He…
Louis Marshall, 1856-1929
Marshall co-founded the American Jewish Committee and served as its president from 1912 to 1926. He supported efforts that aided the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and united Zionists and anti-Zionists in helping…
Golda Meir, 1898-1978
Born in Ukraine and raised in Wisconsin, Meir rose in Labor Zionism with the Histadrut and engaged in diplomacy for the Jewish Agency and Israel, including trying to keep Transjordan out of the 1948 war…
Merav Michaeli, 1966-
A Petah Tikvah native and Tel Aviv resident, Michaeli became the transportation minister in the governing coalition formed in June 2021. She is credited with reinvigorating the Labor Party since becoming its leader at the…
Mayer “Bubba” Mitchell, 1933-2007
A longtime resident of Alabama, Mitchell was the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee from 1990 to 1992 and AIPAC’s chairman from 1993 to 1996. As an activist and philanthropist for Jewish and…
Samuel Mohilever, 1824-1898
Born in Lithuania and ordained at the Volozhin yeshiva, Mohilever was a founder of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia and served as its president in the 1880s. He helped launch Religious…
Moses Montefiore, 1784-1885
Montefiore was an English entrepreneur and philanthropist who visited Ottoman Palestine seven times. Deeply affected religiously by his first visit, he financed Jewish land purchases, settlements, industry, education and health there and directed money bequeathed…
