• Aliyah

    "To ascend." Moving to live in Israel. Also, the term for going up to the Torah to bless a portion of the reading.

  • Am Yisrael

    The Jewish People

  • David Ben Gurion

    The first Prime Minister of the State of Israel

  • Eliezer Ben Yehuda

    The father of the modern Hebrew language, who single-handedly updated an ancient, virtually extinct language to allow it to become the spoken language of the modern State of Israel.

  • Eretz Yisrael

    The Land of Israel

  • HaTikvah

    "The Hope." Israel's national anthem, written by Naphtali Hirsch Imber, which speaks of the 2,000 year long Jewish yearning to return to the Land of Israel.

  • Jerusalem

    Israel's 3,000 year old capital city, established by King David and the site of the holy Temple. Today, a thriving, complex metropolis considered sacred by each of the world's three major monotheistic faiths.

  • Kibbutz

    A collective farming community in Israel. Much of the early settlement of modern Israel came through the kibbutzim.

  • Law of Return

    The Israeli law, passed in 1950, that permits Jews anywhere in the world to come to Israel and immediately receive citizenship. The Law of Return also applies to those who have only one Jewish parent, and to converts to Judaism through any denomination. 

  • Medinat Yisrael

    The State of Israel.

  • Six Day War

    In June 1967, Israel fought a war with all of her neighbors simultaneously. In less than a week, it had tripled in size, capturing the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Sinai Peninsula, and all of Jerusalem. Many of the political conflicts in Israel today, especially the question of Israeli-Palestinian relations, are a debate over the fate of the territories conquered during that war.

  • Theodor Hertzl

    An early advocate of modern, political Zionism. With his writings and speeches, Hertzl popularized the idea of rebuilding a Jewish State.

  • Yitzhak Rabin

    A general who became a peacemaker, the fifth Prime Minister of the State of Israel and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist. 

  • Zionism

    The belief that the Jewish People is entitled to a state of its own. While Jews longed to return to the Land of Israel for two thousand years, modern Zionism as a political movement began in Europe in the 19th century.