Israel Prize
Encyclopedia
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President
President of Israel
The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...

, the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...

, the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 (Israel's legislature) chairperson, and the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...

 president. The prize was set up in 1953 at the initiative of the Minister of Education Ben-Zion Dinor, who himself went on to win the prize in 1958 and 1973.

Awarding the prize

The prize is awarded in the following four areas, with the precise subfields changing from year to year in a cycle of 4 to 7 years, except for the last area, which is awarded annually:
  • the humanities, social sciences, and Jewish studies
  • the natural and exact sciences
  • culture, arts, communication and sports
  • lifetime achievement and exceptional contribution to the nation (since 1972)


The recipients of the prize are Israeli citizens or organizations who have displayed excellence in their field(s), or have contributed strongly to Israeli culture. The winners are selected by committees of judges, who pass on their recommendations to the Education Minister.

Prize winners are elected by ad-hoc committees, appointed by the minister of education for each category each year. Decisions of the committee must be unanimous.

The prize money was NIS 75,000 as of 2008.

Recipients

As of 2009, the prize has been awarded 633 times. Prominent winners include individuals such as Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon , was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon . In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.Agnon was born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire...

, Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....

, Abba Eban
Abba Eban
Abba Eban was an Israeli diplomat and politician.In his career he was Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations...

, A. B. Yehoshua
A. B. Yehoshua
Abraham B. Yehoshua is an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright. His pen name is A. B. Yehoshua.-Biography:...

, Israel Aumann, Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....

, Amos Oz
Amos Oz
Amos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....

, Ephraim Kishon
Ephraim Kishon
' was an Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director. He is one of the most widely-read contemporary satirists in the world.- Early life and World War II :...

, Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer was a leading Israeli songwriter hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry."-Biography:Naomi Sapir was born on Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz her parents had helped found, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal...

 and Teddy Kollek
Teddy Kollek
Theodor "Teddy" Kollek was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1989...

, and organizations such as Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...

, Jewish Agency, Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....

 and Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...

. Though the prize is generally awarded to Israeli citizens only, in exceptional cases it can be awarded to non-Israelis who have held Israeli residency for many years. Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...

 received a special award of the Israel Prize in 1991. Mehta is originally from India, and is Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...

.

Controversy

The decision to award the prize to specific individuals has sometimes led to impassioned political debate. In 1993, the strong reaction of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....

 against the nomination of Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Yeshayahu Leibowitz was an Israeli public intellectual and polymath known for his outspoken opinions on Judaism, ethics, religion and politics.- Biography :...

 led Leibowitz to decline the prize. In 2004, the Education and Culture Minister, Limor Livnat
Limor Livnat
is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud, and as the country's Minister of Culture & Sport.-Biography:Born in Haifa, Livnat is the only member of Knesset not to have a secondary education...

, twice sent the decision to award the prize to sculptor Yigal Tumarkin
Yigal Tumarkin
Yigal Tumarkin is an Israeli painter and sculptor. He is also known as Igael Tumarkin.-Biography:...

 back to the prize committee. Cases in which the decision was brought before the Supreme Court of Israel
Supreme Court of Israel
The Supreme Court is at the head of the court system and highest judicial instance in Israel. The Supreme Court sits in Jerusalem.The area of its jurisdiction is all of Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. A ruling of the Supreme Court is binding upon every court, other than the Supreme...

 included the prizes given to publicist Shmuel Shnitzer, politician Shulamit Aloni
Shulamit Aloni
Shulamit Aloni is an Israeli politician and left-wing activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993.-Biography:...

, professor Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.-Biography:...

 and Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club chairman Shimon Mizrahi
Shimon Mizrahi
Shimon Mizrahi is an Israeli lawyer and the chairman of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club.-Professional career:...

.

On occasion, the committee has been criticized for failing to award the prize to a specific individual. For example, many have expressed criticism (or regret) that the poet Natan Yonatan
Natan Yonatan
Natan Yonatan was an Israeli poet.His poems have been translated from Hebrew and published in more than a dozen languages, among them: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Yiddish....

 never received the prize.

In other cases, the recipients were reluctant to retrieve the prize. These include Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and performer Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar
Uri Zohar is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.-Biography:Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1934. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.By...

. In 2003, artist Moshe Gershoni informed the press that he will not shake the hands of the Prime Minister and Education Minister, and in return his prize was annulled.

Another criticism of the prize is that the large majority of winners have been male, Jewish, and secular. Although around 25% of Israel's population
Demographics of Israel
The State of Israel has a population of approximately 7,798,600 inhabitants as of September 2011. 75.3% of them are Jewish , 20.5% are Arabs , while the remaining 4.3% are defined as "others" The State of Israel has a population of approximately 7,798,600 inhabitants as of September 2011. 75.3% of...

 is non-Jewish, as of 2010 fewer than 2% of winners have been non-Jewish. These include two Arab Muslims (actor Makram Khouri and diplomat Ali Yahya
Ali Yahya
Ali Yahya is an Israeli Arab diplomat. He became the first Israeli ambassador of Arab descent in 1995 when he was appointed ambassador to Finland, a post in which he served until 1999. In 2006 Yahya was appointed Israeli ambassador to Greece.-Biography:Yahya was born in 1947 and raised in Nazareth...

), one Arab Christian (writer Emile Habibi
Emile Habibi
Imil Shukri Habibi was an Israeli-Palestinian writer of Arabic expression and a communist politician, son of a Christian family.In 2005, he was voted the 143rd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest...

), one Circassian
Circassians in Israel
The Circassians in Israel refers to the Adyghe community who live in Israel.The Circassians in Israel are moderate Sunni Muslims, they tend to put an emphasis on the separation between their religion and their nationality...

 (industrialist Eldin Khatukai), two Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

 (qadi Amin Tarif
Amin Tarif
Amin Tarif was the qadi, or spiritual leader, of the Druze in Israel from 1928 till his death in 1993. Such was the esteem in which he was held among Druze internationally that Sheikh Amin was regarded by many within the community as the preeminent spiritual authority in the Druze world.Sheikh...

 and government official Kamal Mansour), and one French Catholic (theologian Marcel-Jacques Dubois). Awarding the prize to Habibi resulted in physicist and politician Yuval Ne'eman
Yuval Ne'eman
Yuval Ne'eman , was a renowned Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. He was a minister in the Israeli government in the 1980s and early 1990s.-Biography:...

relinquishing his own prize.

External links

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