List of Israelis

This is a list of prominent Israelis (including Arab citizens of Israel).

Contents

1 Historical figures 1.1 Politicians 1.2 Military 1.3 Activists 1.4 Criminals 2 Cultural figures 2.1 Film, TV, and stage 2.2 Popular musicians 2.3 Classical musicians 2.4 Writers 2.5 Artists 3 Academic figures 3.1 Computing and mathematics 3.2 Physics and chemistry 3.3 Biology and medicine 3.4 Social sciences 4 Entrepreneurs 4.1 High-tech 4.2 Other 5 Sports 5.1 Basketball 5.2 Football 5.3 Other 6 See also

Historical figures

Politicians

See also: List of Israeli politicians

• Chaim Weizmann - first President of Israel (1949-52)
• David Ben-Gurion - first Prime Minister of Israel (1948-54, 1955-63)
• Moshe Sharett - prime minister (1954-55)
• Levi Eshkol - prime minister (1963-69)
• Abba Eban - diplomat and Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel (1966-1974)
• Golda Meir - prime minister (1969-74)
• Yitzhak Rabin - assassinated prime minister (1974-77, 1992-95); Nobel Peace Prize (1994)
• Menachem Begin - prime minister (1977-83); Nobel Peace Prize (1978)
• Yitzhak Shamir - prime minister (1983-84, 1986-92)
• Shimon Peres - prime minister (1984-86, 1995-96); Nobel Peace Prize (1994); leader of the Labour party
• Benjamin Netanyahu - prime minister (1996-99)
• Ehud Barak - prime minister (1999-01)
• Moshe Katsav - current president (2000-)
• Ariel Sharon - current prime minister (2001-); leader of the Likud party
• Yossi Beilin - leader of the Yachad party & peace negotiator
• Yosef Lapid - leader of the Shinui party
• Effi Eitam - leader of the Mafdal party
• Rabbi Ovadia Yosef - spiritual leader of the Shas party & rabbi

Military

• Ron Arad - MIA navigator
• Eli Cohen - Israeli spy
• Moshe Dayan - military leader
• Rafael Eitan - IDF chief of staff
• Giora Epstein - combat pilot, ace of aces, holding world record for shooting down jets
• Uziel Gal - designer of the Uzi submachine gun
• Meir Har-Zion - commando soldier
• Tzvi Malkhin - Mossad agent, captured Adolf Eichmann
• Jonathan Netanyahu - Sayeret Matkal commando, leader of Operation Entebbe
• Ilan Ramon - astronaut on Columbia flight STS-107
• Avraham Stern - underground military leader
• Israel Tal - general, father of Merkava tank

Activists

• Uri Avnery - peace activist, Gush Shalom
• Yael Dayan - writer, politician, activist
• Uzi Even - gay rights activist
• Nira Schwartz - TRW whistleblower, Wiener Award (2001)
• Uri Savir, peace negotiator, Peres Center for Peace
• Israel Shahak - political activist
• Natan Sharansky - Soviet-era human rights activist

Criminals

• Yigal Amir - assassin of Yitzhak Rabin
• Baruch Goldstein - massacred 29 Arabs in the Cave of the Patriarchs
• Ami Popper - murdered 7 Arabs
• Mordechai Vanunu - nuclear whistleblower

Cultural figures

Film, TV, and stage

See also: List of Israeli actors

• Gila Almagor - actress
• Yvan Attal - actor, director (Israeli-born)
• Mili Avital - actress
• Aki Avni - actor
• Nir Bergman - director
• Nina Brosh - model
• Oded Fehr - actor
• Eytan Fox - director
• Uri Geller - tv personality, self-proclaimed psychic
• Amos Gitai - director
• Amos Kollek - director, writer
• Dover Kosashvili - director
• Daliah Lavi - actress
• Rod Lurie - director, film critic (Israeli-born)
• Arnon Milchan - producer
• Ohad Naharin - choreographer
• Joseph Pitchhadze - director
• Natalie Portman - actress (Israeli-born)
• Haim Saban - tv producer
• Chaim Topol - actor
• Keren Yedaya - director

Popular musicians

See also: List of Israeli musical artists

• Chava Alberstein - singer/songwriter
• Shlomo Artzi - singer/songwriter
• Astral Projection - goa trance band
• Eef Barzelay - founder of Clem Snide
• Miri Ben-Ari - jazz & hip hop violinist
• Mike Brant - French-language singer
• David Broza - singer/songwriter
• Avishai Cohen - jazz bassist
• Arik Einstein - singer, actor, writer
• Yuval Gabay - drummer for Soul Coughing
• Aviv Geffen - singer/songwriter
• Ofra Haza - world singer
• Dana International - pop singer
• Ishtar - vocalist for Alabína
• Orphaned Land - oriental metal band
• Infected Mushroom - psychedelic trance duo
• Hadag Nahash - hip-hop group
• Ahinoam Nini (Noa) - world singer
• Esther Ofarim - singer
• Guy Oseary - head of Maverick Records
• Naomi Shemer - songwriter
• Gene Simmons - bass player for KISS
• Hillel Slovak - original guitarist for Red Hot Chilli Peppers
• Nir Zidkyahu - drummer, briefly in Genesis

Classical musicians

• Daniel Barenboim - conductor and pianist
• Paul Ben-Haim - composer
• Bart Berman - pianist
• Gary Bertini - conductor
• Yefim Bronfman - pianist
• Miriam Fried - violinist
• Ivry Gitlis - violinist
• Matt Haimovitz - cellist
• Ofra Harnoy - cellist
• Eliahu Inbal - conductor
• Joseph Kalichstein - pianist
• Yoel Levi - conductor
• Mischa Maisky - cellist
• Shlomo Mintz - violinist
• Itzhak Perlman - violinist
• Shulamit Ran - composer
• Gil Shaham - violinist
• Noam Sheriff - composer
• Josef Tal - composer
• Yoav Talmi - conductor
• Pinchas Zukerman - violinist

Writers

• Shmuel Yosef Agnon - author, Nobel Prize in Literature (1966)
• Natan Alterman - poet
• Yehuda Amichai - poet
• Aharon Appelfeld - author
• Hayyim Nahman Bialik - poet
• Max Brod - author, composer & friend of Kafka
• Orly Castel-Bloom - author
• Leah Goldberg - poet
• David Grossman - writer
• Batya Gur - author
• Emile Habibi - author
• Amira Hass - journalist & author
• Etgar Keret - author
• Ephraim Kishon - satirist
• Hanoch Levin - playwright
• Aharon Megged - author
• Sami Michael - author
• Uri Orlev - author, Hans Christian Andersen Award (1996)
• Amos Oz - author & journalist
• Rachel - poet
• Meir Shalev - author & journalist
• Anton Shammas - author
• Avraham Shlonsky - poet
• A.B. Yehoshua - author

Artists

• Yaacov Agam - kinetic artist
• Michael Arad - architect
• Ron Arad - designer
• Mordecai Ardon - painter
• Yigal Azrouel - fashion designer
• Ralph Bakshi - animator
• Alber Elbaz - fashion designer
• Leah Gottlieb - fashion designer (Gottex swimsuits)
• Nahum Gutman - painter
• Ranan Lurie - political cartoonist
• Michal Rovner - photographer
• Reuven Rubin - painter
• Moshe Safdie - architect
• Elie Tahari - fashion designer
• Ronit Zilkha - fashion designer

Academic figures

Computing and mathematics

• Amir Ban & Shay Bushinsky - programmers of Deep Junior
• Moshe Bar - creator & main developer of openMosix
• Yehoshua Bar-Hillel - machine translation
• Eli Biham - differential cryptanalysis
• Abraham Fraenkel - ZF set theory
• Abraham Lempel & Jacob Ziv - LZW compression; Richard W. Hamming Medal (1995)
• Michel Loève - probabilist (born in 1907 Palestine)
• Joel Moses - MIT provost & writer of Macsyma
• Judea Pearl - artificial intelligence, philosophy of action
• Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro - representation theory; Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1990)
• Amir Pnueli - temporal logic; Turing Award (1996)
• Michael Rabin - nondeterminism, primality testing; Turing Award (1976)
• Adi Shamir - RSA encryption, differential cryptanalysis; Turing Award (2002)
• Saharon Shelah - logic; Wolf Prize in Mathematics (2001)
• Ehud Shapiro - Concurrent Prolog, DNA computing pioneer
• Avi Wigderson - randomized algorithms; Nevanlinna Prize (1994)
• Doron Zeilberger - combinatorics

Physics and chemistry

• Yakir Aharonov - Aharonov-Bohm effect; Wolf Prize in Physics (1998)
• Jacob Bekenstein - black hole thermodynamics
• David Deutsch - quantum computing pioneer; Paul Dirac Prize (1998)
• Joshua Jortner & Rafi Levine - molecular energy; Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1988)
• Ephraim Katzir - immobilized enzymes; Japan Prize (1985)
• Mordehai Milgrom - Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)
• Yuval Ne'eman - the "Eightfold way"
• Asher Peres - quantum theory
• Giulio Racah - spectroscopy
• Nathan Rosen - EPR paradox
• Nathan Seiberg - string theory
• Israel Shahak - chemist, also wrote on religion and history
• Dan Shechtman - quasicrystals; Wolf Prize in Physics (1999)
• Chaim Weizmann - acetone production

Biology and medicine

• Israel Aharoni - discovered the Syrian hamster
• Aaron Ciechanover & Avram Hershko - ubiquitin system; Lasker Award (2000), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2004)
• Moshe Feldenkrais - invented Feldenkrais method used in movement therapy
• Gavriel Iddan - inventor of capsule endoscopy
• Doron Lancet - smell, origin of life
• Alexander Levitzki - cancer research; Wolf Prize in Medicine (2005)
• Leo Sachs - blood cell research; Wolf Prize in Medicine (1980)
• Michael Sela & Ruth Arnon - developed Copaxone ; Wolf Prize in Medicine (1998)
• Meir Wilchek - affinity chromatography; Wolf Prize in Medicine (1987)
• Ada Yonath - structure of ribosome
• Amotz Zahavi - Handicap Principle

Social sciences

• Aharon Dolgopolsky - linguist: Nostratic
• SN Eisenstadt - sociologist: multiple modernities
• Haim Ginott - psychologist: child psychology
• Eliyahu Goldratt - business consultant: theory of constraints
• Elhanan Helpman - economist: international trade
• Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky - behavioural scientists: prospect theory; Nobel Prize in Economics (2002)
• Benjamin Mazar & Yigael Yadin - archaeologists
• Benny Morris & Avi Shlaim - historians: New Historians
• Erich Neumann - analytical psychologist: development, conciousness

Entrepreneurs

High-tech

• Beny Alagem - founder of Packard Bell
• Safra Catz - president of Oracle
• Idan & Yerach Feigenbaum - founders of SpeedBit (developers of Download Accelerator)
• Eli Harari - founder of SanDisk
• Yoav Hollander - founder of Verisity
• Morris Kahn - founder of Amdocs
• Daniel M. Lewin - founder of Akamai Technologies
• David Perlmutter - mobile platforms manager of Intel (developed Centrino wholly in Israel)
• Zack Rinat - founder of NetDynamics , Model N
• Robert Rosenschein - founder of GuruNet, answers.com (Israeli-based)
• Gil Schwed - founder of Check Point
• Zeev Suraski & Andi Gutmans - founders of Zend Technologies (developers of PHP)
• Arik Vardi, Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser & Amnon Amir - founders of Mirabilis (developers of ICQ)

Other

• Avi Arad & Isaac Perlmutter - owners of Marvel Comics
• Ted , Micky & Shari Arison - founder/owners of Carnival Corporation
• Eli Hurwitz - head of Teva Pharmaceuticals
• Lev Leviev , Benny Steinmetz - diamond tycoons
• Mordecai Meirowitz - inventor of the Mastermind board game
• Joseph , Ralph & Avi Nakash - founders of Jordache
• Sammy & Yuli Ofer - shipping magnates
• Ron Sommer - ex-CEO of Deutsche Telekom
• Stef Wertheimer - industrialist

Sports

Basketball

• Micky Berkowitz - Maccabi Tel-Aviv
• Tal Brody - Maccabi Tel-Aviv
• Tal Burstein - Maccabi Tel-Aviv
• Amit Tamir - University of California, PAOK Thessaloniki

Football

• Yossi Benayoun - Maccabi Haifa, Racing Santander
• Eyal Berkovich - Maccabi Haifa, Southampton, West Ham, Celtic, Man City, Portsmouth
• Haim Revivo - Maccabi Haifa, Celta Vigo, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray
• Ronnie Rosenthal - Maccabi Haifa, Liverpool, Tottenham
• Mordechai Spiegler - Maccabi Netanya, Paris St. Germain
• Pini Zahavi - UK-based super-agent

Other

• 1972 Olympic wrestling team - see Munich Massacre
• Alex Averbukh - pole vaulter (european champion: 2002)
• Isaac Berger - US-based weightlifter (olympic gold: 1956; silver: 1960, 1964)
• Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovsky - ice skaters (world championship bronze: 2002)
• Gal Fridman - windsurfer (olympic gold: 2004, bronze: 1996; world champion: 2002)
• Boris Gelfand , Emil Sutovsky, Ilya Smirin - chess Grandmasters (top 30 rankings)
• Baruch Hagai - wheelchair athlete (multiple paralympic golds)
• Esther Roth-Shachamarov - track & field (5 asian game golds)
• Anna Smashnova - tennis player (9 WTA career titles)
• Ariel Zeevi - judoka (european champion: 2000, 2003, 2004; olympic bronze: 2004)

See also

• List of Palestinians
• List of people by nationality
• Politics of Israel, List of Knesset members
• Culture of Israel, Music of Israel
• Science and technology in Israel
• List of Hebrew language authors, poets and playwrights