List of Israelis
| List of Jews by country |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Arab World | Israel* |
| South-East Europe |
| Austria | Hungary |
| Poland | East Europe |
| Russia | North Europe |
| UK | Germany | Italy |
| France | West Europe |
| Iberia | Latin America |
| Caribbean | Canada |
| US | Asia | Oceania |
| (*most are Jewish) |
This is a list of prominent Israelis (including Arab citizens of Israel).
| Contents |
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
- Hanna Laslo - actress
- 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
- Dani Karavan - sculptor
- Ranan Lurie - political cartoonist
- Michal Rovner - photographer
- Reuven Rubin - painter
- Moshe Safdie - architect
- Elie Tahari - fashion designer
- Ronit Zilkha - fashion designer
Academic figures
Major Thinkers
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 Ločve - 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
There have also been at least 8 Israeli winners of the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science: Shlomo Moran (93), Yoram Moses (97), Moshe Vardi (00), Uriel Feige & Shmuel Safra (01), Nir Shavit (04) and Noga Alon & Yossi Matias (05).
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, consciousness
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)
- Ariki & Yossi 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
See also: List of Israeli chess players
- 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