77 Things You Might Not Know About Israel
In time for the Jewish state's 77th birthday on Thursday, enjoy this list of lesser-known facts about Israeli history, places, culture, and society.
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Whether you’re a Zionist, a curious traveler, or someone who’s seen the headlines but never the heart of our amazing country, here’s your crash course in the miracle, complexity, and culture of Israel.
🕍 Zionism, Jewish History, and the Road to Independence
The word Zion refers to a hill in ancient Jerusalem and became a symbol for the entire Land of Israel in Jewish tradition.
Long before political Zionism gained traction in Europe, Yemenite Jews began immigrating to the Land of Israel in the late 1800s, motivated by deep religious longing and messianic belief. Known as the “First Yemenite Aliyah,” many walked on foot across deserts — through Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan — to reach Jerusalem and Hebron.
There are five main types of Zionism, each with its own ideology, priorities, and vision for the Jewish state: Political Zionism, Labor Zionism (Socialist Zionism), Revisionist Zionism, Religious Zionism, and Cultural Zionism.
Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Political Zionism, tried to pitch a Jewish state to the Ottoman Sultan, the German Kaiser, and the Pope.
Herzl first proposed a Jewish homeland in ... Uganda.
In the 1940s, the American Jewish mob helped funnel millions of dollars to buy weapons for the Haganah — the Jewish underground army in what became the State of Israel. Some of these funds were collected through Jewish community groups, but others came from off-the-books casino profits, smuggling operations, and “donations” extracted with persuasion.
The Declaration of Independence was signed in Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, because Jerusalem was under siege at the time.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding Prime Minister, declared independence in a modest art museum hall. His home on Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Boulevard was tiny, cluttered with books in dozens of languages, and perfectly preserved today.
More than 3,000 Jews from 43 countries in the Diaspora came to help Israel fight its War of Independence beginning in 1948 — many from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Britain, and other countries. These volunteers were known in Hebrew by the acronym Machal (“volunteers from abroad”). World War II veterans brought experience Israel lacked; pilots, mechanics, and medics helped build the infant Israeli Air Force from scratch; and some smuggled arms and planes through loopholes in embargo laws.
Ben-Gurion believed the Negev desert was Israel’s future — so he moved there himself. Ben-Gurion is buried next to his wife Paula overlooking the Negev desert — not in Jerusalem or in a grand cemetery.
Israel is the only country that revived an ancient land and an ancient people at the same time.
🧠 Hebrew: The Revived Language
Hebrew is the only dead language ever revived as a spoken national language. It went from liturgical use only to millions of native speakers in less than 150 years. Before the 20th century, Hebrew was mostly heard in synagogues, read in Torah scrolls, and studied in yeshivot — not shouted at bus drivers or muttered over morning coffee.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, known as the “father of modern Hebrew,” moved to Jerusalem in the late 1800s and insisted his family speak only Hebrew. His son Itamar Ben-Avi became the first native speaker of modern Hebrew in over 2,000 years.
Modern Hebrew includes ancient biblical words, modern inventions, and even slang from Arabic, Yiddish, English, and Russian. The first modern Hebrew speakers had to invent everyday words — like “ice cream” (glidah) and “tomato” (agvania).
Israel is the only country in the world where children speak the language their ancestors spoke 3,000 years ago. Mark Twain once joked that Hebrew was the only language that hadn’t had a conversation in 2,000 years.
🛡 National Security
Israel has no military academies. Everyone trains on the job; soldiers learn by doing, while commanders often rise from the ranks, not military colleges.
Israel is the only country in the world that drafts 18-year-old women into combat.
The IDF has a unit made entirely of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, who train and fight while keeping kosher and praying.
France (not the U.S.) was Israel’s first real ally. Hence, the French played a pivotal role in helping Israel develop its nuclear capability during the 1950s and early 1960s. Today it is rumored that Israel has some 400 nuclear weapons.
The 1967 Six-Day War resulted in Israel regaining control of Jerusalem for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. During this conflict, Israel destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in under six hours. It was called Operation Focus — and it changed the region overnight.
Unit 8200, Israel’s elite cyber-intelligence unit, has produced many of the country’s top tech entrepreneurs. Alumni went on to found Waze, Check Point, Wiz, and Mobileye. Some say serving in Unit 8200 is better than an Ivy League degree.
Israel is believed to have carried out more assassinations than any other Western country since World War II. The message is simple: If you harm a Jew, we will hunt you down.
Israel once smuggled Iraqi Jewish children out of Baghdad ... hidden inside suitcases. This was part of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, which airlifted over 100,000 Iraqi Jews in the early 1950s.
The IDF invented “roof knocking” — a tactic that warns civilians before striking terrorist targets embedded within civilian infrastructure. A small, non-lethal warning is fired at a building to give civilians time to evacuate before a precision strike.
In 1960, the Mossad kidnapped Adolf Eichmann — one of the architects of the Holocaust — in Argentina and brought him to trial in Jerusalem. They tracked him, disguised themselves as airline crew, and sedated him before flying him to Israel.
Israel is the only country in history to have airlifted Africans to safety because they were Jews — Ethiopian Jews in Operations Moses, Joshua, and Solomon.
The Mossad once used a fake diving resort in Sudan as a front to smuggle Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Yes, a real hotel staffed by Mossad agents.
This was part of Operation Brothers, which inspired the Netflix film, “The Red Sea Diving Resort.”
In 1976, Israel pulled off the boldest hostage rescue in history — Operation Entebbe. Israeli commandos flew 2,500 miles to Uganda to rescue Jewish hostages held by Palestinian and German terrorists. Over 100 hostages rescued. The only Israeli soldier killed? Yonatan Netanyahu, the brother of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Mossad has posed as tourists, journalists, diplomats — and in one case, a Canadian birdwatcher — to conduct spy ops. They have even launched fake companies as covers for global missions, such as the ingenious beeper attack against Hezbollah last year. Once, Israel’s intelligence services created a fake psychic hotline to track terrorists. They claimed to be fortune-tellers to trick suspects into revealing info on themselves or their relatives.
Beneath a kibbutz laundry and bakery in Rehovot, a secret underground factory known as the Ayalon Institute produced over 2 million bullets for the Jewish underground — right under the noses of the British. Operated by young Haganah1 members in their teens and twenties, the factory ran in total secrecy from 1945 to 1948, with noise and heat masked by the aboveground bakery machines. Workers sunbathed on the roof to avoid suspicion from looking too pale. Even British soldiers unknowingly dropped off laundry at the site, never realizing they were helping cover up Israel’s first covert munitions operation.
The IDF has a specific soldier role called the “snack sergeant.” During long missions or operations, some units assign a soldier to manage morale ... with Bamba, Bisli, and chocolate.
🗺 Jerusalem of Gold
Jerusalem is over 3,000 years old and has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times. And yet, it's still here. Alive. Holy. (And constantly under renovation.)
The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the Romans in 70 CE — both on the same Hebrew date: the 9th of Av. Coincidence? Jews say: not likely.
Jerusalem is mentioned over 600 times in the Hebrew Bible — but not once in the Quran. And yet, it is considered the third holiest city in Islam after Mecca and Medina.
The Old City of Jerusalem is only 1 square kilometer (0.35 square miles), but contains the holiest sites for Judaism (Western Wall), Christianity (Church of the Holy Sepulchre), and Islam (Al-Aqsa Mosque). Basically, it’s the world’s most sacred traffic jam.
Over 1 million notes are placed into the Western Wall each year — and yes, they’re collected and buried respectfully. You can even send one via email or WhatsApp, and a rabbi will stick it in for you.
🌇 Other Israeli Cities and Sites
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth and one of the saltiest bodies of water, while the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) is actually a freshwater lake, and the lowest such lake in the world.
Tel Aviv has more bars per capita than most major European cities. And more dogs per capita than children.
Haifa is home to the stunning Bahá’í Gardens — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most symmetrical places on Earth.
The Israel National Trail stretches the entire length of Israel — from the Lebanese border in the north to the Red Sea in the south. National Geographic named it one of the “World’s Best Hikes” — right up there with the Appalachian Trail and Machu Picchu. There’s a secret, informal network of “trail angels” who host hikers for free. Israelis open their homes for showers, laundry, meals — or even just a backyard to pitch a tent.
In the heart of Jaffa’s historic port lies the Na Laga’at Center, a groundbreaking cultural institution that redefines the boundaries of performance art. Established in 2002, Na Laga’at (which means “Please Touch” in Hebrew) houses the world’s only professional theater ensemble composed of deafblind actors. These performers, many of whom have Usher syndrome (a condition leading to congenital deafness and progressive blindness), communicate through tactile sign language, touch, and movement, crafting performances that are both poignant and profoundly human.
🏫 Politics and Government
No party ever “wins” an Israeli national election; they just build a coalition. Israel has no winner-take-all system. It uses proportional representation, which means parties win seats based on their share of the national vote. No single party has ever won a majority — so forming a government always means cutting deals with smaller parties, from socialists to ultra-Orthodox to Arab nationalists.
You can start a political party with just a few friends and a name. To run for Knesset (parliament), you don’t need a big political machine; you just need a few hundred signatures, a filing fee, and a list of candidates. Dozens of parties register for every election; most don’t pass the 3.25 percent electoral threshold, but they still get campaign airtime and a shot at influencing the discourse.
Instead of a single codified constitution, Israel is governed by a set of “Basic Laws” that function like constitutional principles. This allows for flexibility — and also for enormous legal debates, especially about the balance between “Jewish” and “democratic.”
Shimon Peres, former president and prime minister, served in the Knesset until the age of 94 — making him one of the oldest elected officials in any democracy, anywhere.
💡 Innovation and Technology
Israeli cows are the world’s most productive, with an average yield of approximately 12,265 kilograms (about 27,000 pounds) per cow annually. This remarkable productivity is achieved through a combination of factors, including advanced genetics, innovative farm management, and cooperative agricultural models.
Modern kibbutzim run multi-million-dollar factories, exporting irrigation systems, medical devices, plastics, and software. For example, Netafim, the global leader in drip irrigation, was born on Kibbutz Hatzerim. So were international companies like Caesarstone, Maytronics, Albaad, Tnuva, and Palram Industries.
Israel recycles about 90 percent of its wastewater, the highest rate in the world. Israel is helping solve global water crises through desalination and water reuse technologies.
Despite having limited water and arable land, Israel produces at least 80 percent of its own food needs, including a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and even wine. Through a combination of drip irrigation (invented in Israel!), advanced greenhouses, water recycling, and desert agriculture, Israel turned barren land into fertile farms — especially in the Negev.
The world’s first lab-grown steak was developed in Israel.
Israel is one of only 13 countries in the world (and the only in the Middle East) with the ability to launch satellites into space using its own technology and launch site.
As a percentage of GDP, Israel spends more on research and development than any other country, reflecting its deep prioritization of innovation across industries.
✡️ Holidays, Spirit, and Symbols
The national anthem, Hatikvah (“The Hope”), was written in the 1870s, over 70 years before Israel’s founding, by a Galician Jew named Naftali Herz Imber. It was a poem called Tikvatenu (“Our Hope”), expressing the yearning for a return to Zion. The original poem had nine stanzas; only one made it into the anthem. Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, would secretly sing Hatikvah as a quiet act of defiance and hope.
Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) are purposely observed on back-to-back days — Jewish symbolism of transitioning from grief to celebration. The mourning-to-joy whiplash reflects the deep Israeli understanding that national celebration is only possible because of those who sacrificed.
Yom Kippur in Israel is like a national pause button: no TV, no cars, no open stores. Highways become eerily empty — and thousands of kids turn them into bike highways. It’s the quietest day of the year, even in secular Tel Aviv.
In the weeks before Passover, many Israeli grocery stores switch to kosher-for-Passover-only products — covering up entire aisles, changing labels, and even closing bakeries. Cleaning crews deep-clean homes, offices, and school cafeterias with near-OCD levels of detail. In observant cities, you’ll find “kosher-for-Passover” pizza made with potato starch crusts. McDonald’s in Israel even rolls out a matzah-bun burger.
The menorah on Israel’s national emblem is modeled after the one in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.
Blue and white were chosen for Israel’s flag because of the traditional Jewish prayer shawl, the tallit.
In many apartment buildings and hotels across Israel, you'll find Shabbat elevators — special elevators programmed to automatically stop at every floor so observant Jews don’t have to press buttons, which is considered a form of prohibited “work” on Shabbat. While a time-saver they are not, they’re a uniquely Israeli solution to blending halacha (Jewish law) with modern convenience — and a frequent source of accidental frustration for clueless tourists.
🎶 Arts, Music, and Pop Culture
Many Israeli bands start in the army. The IDF has official entertainment units, and many Israeli musicians (like Shlomo Artzi, Yehudit Ravitz, Netta Barzilai) got their start performing in army bands.
The Hula Valley Bird Festival is a premier event for bird enthusiasts, held annually in northern Israel's Hula Valley. This region serves as a critical stopover for migratory birds traveling between Europe, Asia, and Africa, with over 500 million birds passing through each migration season.
Despite its small size, Israel has won 14 Olympic medals — and half are in judo. Athletes like Yael Arad and Arik Ze’evi are national icons.
Israeli film director and screenwriter Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir” (2008) was the first animated documentary ever nominated for an Academy Award. It explores the trauma of Israeli soldiers in the 1982 Lebanon War — through surreal, haunting animation.
Israel’s Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities maintain a completely separate media ecosystem, including daily newspapers. These papers are tailored to religious values, meaning no immodest content, no secular celebrity gossip — and almost always no photos of women, even prominent ones. In fact, some will blur or crop out women entirely to comply with modesty standards.
Piyyutim — ancient Hebrew liturgical poems — are being revived in modern Israeli music today.
🌍 Culture and Society
Israel holds the distinction of having the highest number of museums per capita in the world. With over 200 museums serving a population of approximately 10 million, this equates to more than one museum for every 50,000 residents. These museums encompass a vast array of subjects including art, history, science, technology, and culture.
Jews in Israel come from over 100 countries, including Yemen, Morocco, Russia, Ethiopia, Iran, France, South Africa, Canada, India, Cuba, and the United States.
Israel ranks among the top countries in global happiness and life expectancy.
Israeli women average 2.9 children, nearly double the OECD average of 1.5. Even secular Jewish women have higher fertility rates than their counterparts in other developed countries.
Israel has more vegans per capita than anywhere else in the world. Tel Aviv is often ranked the vegan capital of the world.
Established in 1919, and now with some 80,000 members between the ages of 9 and 18, the Israeli Scouts is the largest youth movement in Israel. It is also famously known as the world’s first egalitarian scouting movement, where boys and girls participate together on an equal basis.
Israelis live on two calendars at once. Every Israeli has to juggle both the Gregorian calendar and the Hebrew calendar — for birthdays, holidays, deaths, and even government paperwork.
Before “Startup Nation,” there was the Jaffa orange — a sweet, seedless citrus exported worldwide as early as the 19th century. Cultivated by both Arab and Jewish farmers, it became a symbol of the Zionist agricultural revival and Israel’s early economy. The name “Jaffa” became an international trademark, and crates with Hebrew and Arabic labels were shipped across Europe. Fun fact: the original Jaffa orange variety was so popular, it helped finance the establishment of early Zionist settlements.
While much of the Western world starts work on Monday, Israelis head to work on Sunday — the first day of the Hebrew week. Friday is often a short day or fully off, as businesses close early in preparation for Shabbat. This makes Thursday night the de facto start of the weekend.
There is no single “Israeli cuisine.” It’s a culinary mashup of over 100 diasporas. From Yemenite jachnun, to Austrian schnitzel, Iraqi kubbeh, Ethiopian injera, and Bukharan osh plov, Israeli food is a cultural fusion of Jews from across the globe — all layered atop a Middle Eastern base.
Israel has one of the highest rates of female entrepreneurship and startup founders in the world. Israeli women are raising kids, commanding troops, and raising capital — sometimes all before lunch.
Bamba, a peanut butter-flavored puffed snack, is Israel’s unofficial national food. Over 90 percent of Israeli toddlers eat it regularly. Fun fact: Kids who eat Bamba have a lower incidence of peanut allergies.
Bonus: Under Israel’s Law of Return, passed in 1950, any Jew anywhere in the world — along with their children, grandchildren, and spouses — has the right to immigrate to Israel and receive automatic citizenship. It’s not just policy — it’s a statement of refuge and belonging, written into the DNA of the state just five years after the Holocaust. No other country has a standing offer of safe haven for an entire people.
The main Zionist paramilitary organization operating in the British Mandate for Palestine
What a wonderful and uplifting article, thank you!
Only 77 wasn't enough (what is your position on creative accounting?)
77.1 Israeli scientists working in Israel have won 6 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry since 2000. That's the same number as Germany and one more than France during that period. Expat Israelis have won many more Nobel Prizes.
77.2 Jews have lived continuously in Jerusalem since 1187, when Saladin conquered the city and invited Jews to return.
77.3 Israel Military Industries was founded in 1933.
77.4 All Israeli officers begin their career as a private. Unlike the US where most officers attend an academy or university and begin their military career as a Second Lieutenant. "Fraternizing with the troop" is a court-martial offense in the US but expected in the IDF.
77.5 Most of Intel's high-end CPUs are designed in Israel and the Alder Lake family of CPUs was the first officially unveiled in Israel.
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After the Oct 7 massacre Israeli society, not just the government, reacted with great unity and civic spirit so that one year later we could see all of Israel's enemies utterly defeated, in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
It was an uplifting sight to see the soldiers of Israel come out in great strength to defend the people of Israel and I am grateful to have been granted life to witness this. Sheheheyanu...
What?! No heavy discussions? A breathe of fresh air never hurt.
I read too much. Study too much, think too much and editorialize too much. So this post reminds me to live occasionally.
I don’t know how many read this site but it needs more.