People

Chana Senesh (1921–1944) was a Jewish soldier and a poet and left behind a unique and important legacy.

Born as Anatoly Sharansky in the Soviet Union in 1948. He later immigrated to Israel and worked tirelessly to help Soviet Jews.

Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl (1860–1904) was the visionary behind modern Zionism.

Naomi (Sapir) Shemer (1930-2004) was born on Kvuzat Kinneret. In 1983 she was awarded the Israel Prize for Hebrew song.

Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a French-Jewish officer at the center of one of the most dramatic affairs of modern European history.

Golda Meir (1898-1978) immigrated in 1921 to Israel with her husband and joined a kibbutz. She later became Israel’s first and, to date, only female prime minister.

Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) was the first native-born Israeli to be prime minister. Some of the major events in his career included Operation Entebbe and signing the Oslo Accords.

Henrietta Szold (1860-1945), was devoted to Zionism and immigrated to Israel in 1932. She founded the Hadassah women's organization in 1912.

Menachem Begin (1913-1992), born in Poland and immigrated to Israel in 1942. He served as prime minister for more than six years.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922) moved to Palestine in 1881. He was the driving force behind the revival of the modern Hebrew language.

Awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature, Agnon's works tell stories of the Jews of Eastern Europe, as well as the conflict between the traditional Jewish world and modern life.

Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon was one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. He was born in Spain in 1138 and was also a physician, scientist, and researcher.

Sarah Aaronsohn (1890-1917) was born in Zichron Ya’akov. Sarah was a spy for NILI, whose goal was to help the British army defeat the Turkish rulers.

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) was a military man turned politician. He was involved in planning the Camp David Accords.

Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) devoted his life to philanthropy. He invested much money and effort in helping Jews throughout the world.