- Moshe Sharett
Moshe Sharett, born Moshe Shertok (Hebrew: משה שרתוק was the second Prime Minister of Israel (1954-1955), serving for a little under two years between David Ben-Gurion's two terms. Born in Kherson, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, Moshe Sharett emigrated to Palestine in 1908. His family was one of the founders of Tel Aviv. He was a member of the first graduating class of the Herzliya Hebrew High School. - Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer was one of Israel's most important and prolific song writers, considered by some "the First Lady of Israeli Song". Born as Naomi Sapir, Shemer wrote both words and lyrics to her own songs, composed music to words by others (such as the poet Rachel), and set Hebrew words to internationally known tunes (such as "Hey Jude" by the Beatles); she has probably made more lasting contributions to Israeli song than any other single songwriter. - Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold (December 21, 1860 - February 13, 1945) was a U.S. Jewish scholar and Zionist leader. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of a rabbi, she studied Talmud and established the first American night school, intended to provide English language instruction and vocational skills to Russian Jewish immigrants in Baltimore. Beginning in 1893, she worked for the Jewish Publication Society, a position she maintained for over two decades. - Batya Gur
Batya Gur (20th January 1947, Tel Aviv - May 19, 2005) was an Israeli writer, specializing in detective fiction. She received a master's degree in comparative literature from the Hebrew University. She taught literature in high schools and spent a number of years in the U.S. Gur was known for her social and political sensitivity, and has published a non-fiction book called "Next to the Hunger Road" (Keter, 1990). She has also published several works of fiction, … - Shlomo Aviner
Rabbi Shlomo Chaim haKohen Aviner is the Rosh yeshiva of the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem. He is considered one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement. Rabbi Aviner was born in 1943 in Lyon, France, and was involved in the Bnei Akiva youth movement, rising to the position of National Director. Rabbi Aviner is a qualified electrical engineer and holds an MA in mathematics. - A. D. Gordon
Aaron David Gordon, was a Zionist ideologue and the spiritual force behind practical Zionism. He founded the "Ha'poel Hatzair" ("the Young Worker") movement that set the tone for the Zionist movement for many years to come. Influenced by Tolstoy and others, it is said that in effect he made a religion of labor. However, he himself wrote in 1920, "Surely in our day it is possible to live without religion." - Ran Cohen
Ran Cohen (born 20 June 1937) is an Israeli politician and Knesset member for Meretz-Yachad. He is a resident of Mevaseret Zion and married with four children. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Cohen was 13 years old when he immigrated to Israel through Iran. He grew in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, where he absorbed Socialist and Zionist ideologies. During his military service he rose to the rank of Colonel (Aluf Mishne). - Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Sirhan was a Muslim Palestinian responsible for a November 10, 2002 attack on the Israeli Kibbutz Metzer in which he killed five Israeli civilians. He was reportedly a member of Tanzim, which is the armed wing of al-Fatah. A year after the event, Sirhan was killed by YAMAM during a house demolition. - Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ((November 24, 1884 - April 23, 1963) was a historian, Labor Zionist leader, and the second and longest serving President of Israel. Born in Poltava, Ukraine, Ben-Zvi was the eldest son of Zvi Shimshelevitz, who later took the name Shimshi. He was active in the Jewish self-defense units organized in Ukraine to defend Jews during the pogroms of 1905, and joined the Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion) Zionist political party. - Effie Eitam
Efraim (Effie) Eitam (Fein) (b. June 25, 1952), is an Israeli politician. Eitam is a Knesset member, head of the Renewed Religious National Zionist party, and the former leader of the National Religious Party. He serves on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees. An orthodox Jew (Hebrew: חזר בתשובה), he wasborn on Kibbutz Ein Gev and received a secular education. When he was old enough, Eitam joined the Israeli Defence Forces. - Effi Eitam
Efraim (Effie) Eitam (Fein) (born 25 June 1952), is an Israeli politician. Eitam is a Knesset member, head of the Renewed Religious National Zionist party, which forms part of the National Union, and the former leader of the National Religious Party. He serves on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees. An orthodox Jew, he was born on Kibbutz Ein Gev and received a secular education. When he was old enough, Eitam joined the Israeli Defence Forces. - Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern, alias Yair was the founder and leader of the Zionist militant organization later known as Lehi which was also known as the "Stern Gang". Stern was born in Suwałki, Poland, immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1925, and studied in the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem, and afterwards in the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. He specialized in Classic languages and literature (Greek and Latin). - Moshe Shamir
Moshe Shamir (September 15, 1921 - August 20, 2004) was an Israeli author, playwright, opinion writer, and public figure. He was one of the most important Israeli writers of modern times. Moshe Shamir was born in Safed. He went to the Tel Nordau School and graduated from the Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv. In the Israeli War of Independence he served in Palmach. He began his political career as a member of the movement Hashomer Hatzair, … - Moshe Carmel
Moshe Carmel (born 17 January 1911, died August 14 2003) was an Israeli soldier and politician. He served as Minister of Transportation for eight years. - Haim Oron
Haim "Jums" Oron (born 26 March 1940) is an Israeli politician and former Minister of Agriculture. He is currently a Member of the Knesset for Meretz-Yachad. Oron was born in Giv'atayim, and went on to serve in the parachuted Nahal. He joined Kibbutz Lahav (where he has worked as a factory manager and a teacher) and remains a member of it to this day. In 1968, he became secretary of Hashomer Hatzair and then, the National Kibbutz movement. - Edeet Ravel
Edeet Ravel is an Israeli-Canadian novelist. Ravel was born in Sasa, Israel, a kibbutz near the Lebanese border. At age seven her family relocated to Montreal, Quebec. She returned to Israel to attend university in Jerusalem, studying English Literature, and then returned to Montreal, completing her Ph.D. in Jewish Studies at McGill University and studying Creative Writing at Concordia University. She subsequently taught at McGill, Concordia and John Abbott College. - Aharon Megged
Aharon Megged (born 1920; Hebrew year 5680) is an Israeli author and playwright. Aharon Megged was born in 1920 in Poland, and in 1926 immigrated with his parents to the Mandatory Palestine. He grew up in Ra'anana, attending the Herzliya high school in Tel Aviv. After graduation, he joined a Zionist pioneering youth movement, training at Kibbutz Giv'at Brenner. He was a member of Kibbutz Sedot Yam for twelve years. Megged, along with a group of writer friends, … - Micha Lindenstrauss
Micha Lindenstrauss is an Israeli judge and the current State Comptroller. Lindenstrauss was born in Nazi Germany and immigrated to the Land of Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine) when he was two years old, on the eve of World War II. He studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and later became a military prosecutor, and later, judge in a military tribunal. In 1972, he became a Traffic Court judge, and later, a Lower District Court judge in Haifa, … - Lynne Reid Banks
Lynne Reid Banks (born 31 July 1929) is a British author of books for children and adults. She has written forty books, including the best-selling children's novel "The Indian in the Cupboard", which has sold over 10 million copies and been made into a film. Banks was born in London, the only child of James and Muriel Reid Banks. She was evacuated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada during World War II but returned after the war was over. - Nahum Sokolow
Nahum Sokolow was a Zionist leader, author, translator, and a pioneer of Hebrew journalism. Born to a rabbinic family in Wyszogród, Russia (now Poland), Sokolow began writing for the local Hebrew newspaper, "HaTzefirah", when he was only seventeen years old. He quickly won himself a huge following that crossed the boundaries of political and religious affiliation among Polish Jews, from secular intellectuals to anti-Zionist Haredim, … - Avigdor Arikha
Avigdor Arikha is an Israeli and French painter, printmaker, and art historian. Arikha was born to German-speaking parents in Rădăuţi, near Czernowitz, in what was then called Bukovina, and is today in Romania. ("See Romania during World War II") His family faced forced deportation in 1941 to the concentration camps of Western Ukraine, where his father died. He managed to survive thanks to the drawings he made of deportation scenes, … - Yisrael Galili
Yisrael Galili (10 February 1911-8 February 1986) was an Israeli politician and member of Knesset. Before Israel's independence in 1948, he had served as Chief of Staff of the Haganah. Galili was born in the town of Brailov in Poland (now Ukraine). His family immigrated to Palestine when he was three years old, and settled in Tel Aviv. Galili attended school there and apprenticed with a printer. Galili began his military career in 1927, when he enlisted in the Haganah. - Huwaida Arraf
Huwaida Arraf is a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization. The stated mission of the ISM is to resist the Israeli occupation using nonviolent tactics. Arraf is married to Adam Shapiro, another ISM co-founder, whom she met while both were working at the Jerusalem center of "Seeds of Peace", an organization that seeks to foster dialogue between Jewish and Palestinian youth. - Nachman Syrkin
Nachman Syrkin or Nahman Syrkin (1868-1924) was a political theorist and founder of Labour Zionism. Born in Russian Empire (now Belarus), Syrkin was influenced by Zionism and socialism in his youth and dedicated himself to synthesising the two concepts. In this task he was joined by Ber Borochov, although, unlike Borochov, Syrkin was not a Marxist. - Moshe Levi
Moshe Levi (born 1936) was the 12th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from 1983-1987. He is also known by the nickname "Moshe Vachetsi" ("Moshe and a half") because of his considerable height. Levi studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although an urbanite from Jerusalem, he is a member of kibbutz Bet Alpha, from where his wife originates as well. When he became Chief Staff in 1983, IDF troops were deep in Lebanese territory. - Sandra Bernhard
Sandra Bernhard (born June 6 1955 in Flint, Michigan) is an American comedian, actress, author and singer. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy where she often bitterly critiques celebrity culture and political figures. She is also famous for her close friendship to Madonna during the late 1980's. Bernhard is number 97 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. - Melford Spiro
Melford Elliot Spiro (born April 26, 1920) is an American cultural anthropologist specializing in psychological anthropology. He is known for his work on the Westermarck effect, and for his studies of the "kibbutz." He has conducted fieldwork among the Ojibwa, on Ifaluk atoll in the South Pacific, in Israel, and in Burma (now Myanmar). - Dror Feiler
Dror Feiler is a musician and artist. Though born in Tel Aviv, Israel, he has been living in Stockholm, Sweden since 1973. He is married to the artist Gunilla Sköld-Feiler. Feiler studied new music and its interpretation at the Fylkingen Institut for New Music 1975-1977, musicology at the University of Stockholm 1977-1978 and composition at the Music Academy of Stockholm with G. Buckt, S.D. Sandström and B. Ferneyhough 1978-1983. - Yosef Haim Brenner
Yosef Haim Brenner, alternately Yosef Chaim Brenner, (1881 - 1921) was a Ukrainian-born Hebrew-language author, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature. Born to a poor family, Brenner grew up in grinding poverty. In 1902 he was drafted into the Russian army. Two years later, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, he deserted and was caught, but escaped to London with the help of the General Jewish Labor Union, which he had joined as a youth. - Amalia Kahana-Carmon
Amalia Kahana-Carmon (born 1926) is an Israeli author, educator, and recipient of the Israel Prize for literature (2000). Amalia was born at Kibbutz Ein Harod. Her father, Haim Kahana, was one of the founders of the kibbutz. She moved to Tel Aviv, where she studied at the Herzliya secondary school. During the Israeli War of Independence she served in the Negev Brigade of Palmach as a signals operator and wrote the famous telegram for the capture of Eilat. - Jeff Fahey
Jeffrey David Fahey (born November 29, 1952) is an American film and television actor. Fahey was born in Olean, New York, one of thirteen siblings. He was raised in Buffalo, New York from the age of ten. Fahey left home at the age of seventeen, subsequently hitchhiking to Alaska, backpacking through Europe and working in an Israeli kibbutz. - Nadav Safran
Professor Nadav Safran was an expert in Arab and Middle East politics, and a former director of Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Safran was born in Cairo in 1925 to Joseph and Jeanne (Abadi) Safran, parents of oriental Jewish heritage. He married Anita Balicka on June 9, 1955 and had three daughters — Abigail, Nina, and Elizabeth. Safran worked on a kibbutz in 1946 and fought as a lieutenant in Israel's War of Independence, … - Hanoch Bartov
Hanoch Bartov (born 1926) is an Israeli author and opinion writer. Hanoch Bartov was born in Petah Tikva, where he attended first a religious school and then the Achad Haam gymnasium. After two years working in diamond polishing and welding, he enlisted in 1943 (aged 17) in the Palestine Regiment of the British Army. He served for three years in the Jewish Brigade, first in Palestine and then in Italy and the Low Countries. - Manya Shochat
Manya Shochat (or Mania Shohat) (Born 1880*; Died 1961) was Russian Jewish politician and the "mother" of the Kibbutz movement and collective settlement in Palestine - Uziel Gal
Uziel "Uzi" Gal, born Gotthard Glass, was a German-born- Israeli gun designer best remembered as the designer and namesake of the Uzi submachine gun. Gal was born in Weimar, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved first to England and later, in 1936, to Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1943 he was arrested for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. However he was pardoned and released in 1946, … - Nurit Zarchi
Nurit Zarchi (born Jerusalem, October 19, 1941; 28 Tishri 5702 AM) is an Israeli poet and author for adults and children. Her father was the author Israel Zarchi. He died when she was six, leaving her an orphan. She was raised at Kibbutz Geva as a guest. Later she went to Ein Harod, where she completed her secondary schooling. After her military service, she completed studies in psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. - Ari Rath
Ari Rath (b. 1925 in Vienna) is an Austrian-Israeli journalist and writer. Rath grew up in Vienna. After the "Anschluss" he came through a "Kindertransport" (transportation of children) as a thirteen-year-old boy to Israel. In Israel he lived on a "kibbutz" and studied contemporary history and economics. - Shmuel Dayan
Shmuel Dayan (often Shemuel Dayan) (8 August 1891 - 11 August 1968) was a Zionist activist during the British Mandate of Palestine and an Israeli politician who served in the first three Knessets. Born in the town of Jashkov in the Ukraine, he joined the Zionist movement as a boy and emigrated to Palestine, then under Ottoman rule in 1908. He worked in agriculture in the settlements of Petah Tikva, Rehovot, Yavne, and Kinneret until 1911, … - Menahem Stern
Menahem Stern, Israeli historian, one of the greatest researchers of the period of the Second Temple. He received the Israel Prize for History of the Jewish people in 1977. Menahem Stern was born in 1925 in Białystok, Poland. His father was a Lithuanian Jew of the "opposition" (to the Hasidic movement), while his mother came from the south from a Hasidic family. In his childhood he studied Hebrew and theology, … - Amnon Shamosh
Amnon Shamosh (1929-) is an Israeli author and poet. Shamosh was born in 1929 in Aleppo, Syria. In his childhood he immigrated to Palestine and participated in the Israeli War of Independence in a Palmach unit. He studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a founder of kibbutz Maayan Baruch, where he has resided ever since. He engaged in education and instruction. Among his novels are "Michel Ezra Safra and Sons", …
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