List of Israelis

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

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
• Amal Murkus – singer
• 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, Prix Médicis étranger (2004)
• 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, Goethe Prize (2005)
• Rachel – poet
• Meir Shalev – author & journalist
• Zeruya Shalev – author
• 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
• Bob 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)
• Yossi Vardi – leading Internet expert and entrepreneur
• 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 – Hapoel Beer Sheva, Maccabi Haifa, Racing Santander
• Tal Ben Haim – Maccabi Tel Aviv, Bolton Wanderers
• Eyal Berkovich – Maccabi Haifa, Southampton, West Ham, Celtic, Man City
• 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
• List of Israeli chess players