Every name, a world.
True stories about the people behind the names.
Touch a figure and discover a story
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ציר הזמן is dedicated to extraordinary people and the stories left on the margins of history.
For years, I collected stories about people who were tenacious, brave, and one of a kind. In 2012, I decided to stop keeping them to myself, and ever since, I have published one story about one person every week.
What brings me back to the keyboard is a mix of admiration, envy, and pride in people who refused to surrender to their circumstances. Most of the people I write about are connected to a place in Israel, so you can encounter their stories beyond the screen and tell them where they happened.
235 People, And the journey continues.
She said it.
In her own words.
5 min read
Netiva Ben-Yehuda
From the Palmach to the microphone. The woman who gave spoken Hebrew a stage.
To the storySet out to see the world.
Found a home in the Galilee.
11 min read
Franz van der Horn
On foot from the Netherlands to the Land of Israel. The man who planted orchards in the Galilee and blazed a trail to the Nahal Ayun waterfalls.
To the storyShe gave Hebrew
a new life.
11 min read
Hemda Ben-Yehuda
Writer, coiner of new words, and fashion journalist. Much more than the woman by his side.
To the storyHe imagined differently.
He made it real.
6 min read
Yohanan Ratner
Architect, officer, and Rachel's beloved. A life that moved between building plans and other kinds of plans.
To the storyEvery era has its people.
birth year 1878
Mania Shohat
The fiery revolutionary from Russia who conceived the cooperative commune, founded "Bar-Giora" and "Hashomer," and led underground arms operations that shaped the Hebrew defense force.
To the storyAll stories by birth year
Before 1800
1800-1849
1806 Consul Finn1806 Clorinda Minor1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe1814 Alphonse Ratisbonne1818 Frederick Douglass1822 Avraham Korkin1822 Rabbi Jacob Sapir1822 Konrad Schick1826 Rabbi David Ben Shimon1826 Karl Netter1827 Holman Hunt1828 Henrik Ibsen1830 Moses Wilhelm Shapira1832 Reuven Lerer1836 Yosef Rivlin1837 Akiva Yosef Schlesinger1838 Yoel Moshe Salomon1839 Princess Jeanne Merkus1839 Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines1841 Batya Makov1843 Edvard Grieg1843 Zerach Barnett1843 Yehoshua Yellin1847 Dr. d'Arbella1848 Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld
1850-1899
1852 Jacob Elhanan Litvinsky1853 Alter Schwartz1854 Oscar Wilde1855 David Wolffsohn1856 Zalman David Levontin1856 Sarah Ita Felman1858 Selma Lagerlöf1859 Shimon Goldman1860 Isaac Leib Goldberg1860 Michael Halpern1861 Meir Dizengoff1862 Rabbi David Israel Tzairei (Al-Sharia)1862 Yitzhak Epstein1864 Yehoshua Hankin1864 Yechiel Michel Steinberg1864 Yelizaveta Feodorovna1864 Michael Polak1865 Ellis Kadoorie1865 Dov Klimker1865 Chaim Hissin1865 Felix de Menashe1866 Boris Schatz1867 John Henry Patterson1868 Baron Alfred Moritz Mond (Lord Melchett)1868 Yehezkel Danin1869 Maria Rosetta Shapira (Miriam Harry)1869 Nechama Pukhachevsky1869 Shmuel Broza1871 Ernst Leitz II1871 Herman Kallenbach1873 Zelig Eugen Soskin1873 Hemda Ben-Yehuda1873 Moshe Novomeysky1874 Moshe Smilansky1877 Yehuda Antebi1877 Joshua Margolin1878 Mania Shohat1878 Richard Meinertzhagen1879 Alice May Carey1879 Melania Karlovna1879 Nahum Wilbush1879 Pinchas Rutenberg1880 Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel1880 Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan1880 Rabbi Benjamin (Yehoshua Radler-Feldman)1881 Joseph Haim Brenner1882 Moshe Abarbanel1883 Edward Raphael Aghion1883 Haim and Miriam Yaffe1883 Hannah Meisel Shohat1883 Noah Naftolsky1884 Abraham Aldema1884 Auguste Piccard1884 Shmuel Yavnieli1885 Alice von Battenberg1885 Aristides de Sousa Mendes1886 Irma Lindheim1886 Alexander Zaid1886 Moshe Greidinger1886 Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi1887 Erich Mendelsohn1887 Ben-Zion Israeli1887 Baruch Katinka1887 Gad Frumkin1887 Gotthilf Wagner1887 Rabbi Yehuda Meir Shapira1887 Meir Rotberg1887 S.Y. Agnon1888 Elisheva Bihovsky1888 Tamrat Emmanuel1889 Helena Kagan1889 Leah Abushdid1889 Lord Israel Ziv1889 Miriam Baratz1889 Sarah Shmukler1890 Yosef Zaltzman1890 Rachel the Poet1891 Eduard Schulte1891 Rabbi Isaiah Shapira1891 Yohanan Ratner1891 Franz van der Horn1891 Rudolfina Menzel1892 Aharon Shidlovsky1892 Erich Jacob Yaroslavsky1892 Haile Selassie1892 Paula Ben-Gurion1893 The Sturman Family1893 Ada Fishman1894 Gideon Mer1894 Rivka Chizik1895 Erich Muller1895 Wilm Hosenfeld1895 Marcel Janco1895 Carl Lutz1897 Jan and Antonina Żabiński1897 Yosef Yekutieli1897 Karl Plagge1897 Simcha Blass1898 Rebecca Grabovsky1899 Joop Westerweel1899 Leah Tannenbaum1899 Magda Lupescu
1900-1949
1901 Magda Goebbels1901 Magda and Andre Trocme1901 Natan Ikar1901 Feng-Shan Ho1902 Gunter Friedlaender1902 Leopold von Mildenstein1902 Rebecca Guber1902 Regina Jonas1903 Orde Charles Wingate1906 Otte Wallish1906 Alexander Penn1906 Alma Rosé1907 Odoardo Focherini1907 Helmut Kleinicke1908 Yonatan Ratosh1909 Hilda and Richard Strauss1909 Leopold Socha1909 Nicholas Winton1909 Reuven Hecht1910 Abraham Ikuro Teshima1910 Douglas Bader1911 Leah Goldberg1913 Elizabeth Eidenbenz1913 Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neriah1914 Gino Bartali1914 Zelda1914 Haviva Reik1915 Gerhard Kurzbach1916 Alexei Maresyev1917 Jacqueline Kahanoff1917 Yigal Mossinson1917 Shulamit Kishik Cohen1918 Bruria Kaufman1918 Lea Gottlieb1920 Mordechai Maklef1920 Amos Yarkoni1920 Tamar Eshel1921 Modi Alon1921 Mihai, King of Romania1921 Kariel Gardosh (Dosh)1922 Olga Sarah Fisher1922 Erich Hartmann1922 Jacques Piccard1922 Rachel Habashush1923 Uri Avnery1923 Rabbi Israel Friedman Ben-Shalom1923 Hanna Maron1923 Yaakov Granek ("The Blond Dov")1924 Ephraim Kishon1925 Eliezer Sharon Sudit ('Beggar')1925 Dvora Kalfus Nehushtan1925 David (Dudu) Cherkaski1925 Yuval Ne'eman1925 Shimon Alfasi1926 Aharon (Jimmy) Shemi1926 Mira (Miriam) Ben-Ari1927 Abie Nathan1927 Bracha Fuld1927 Zehara Levitov1927 Tamar Bornstein-Lazar1928 Amotz Zahavi1928 Netiva Ben-Yehuda1929 Eliezer Moshe Arkin1929 Amnon Shamosh1929 Joe Alon1929 Hadassah Lampel1930 Yehudit Yehezkeli-Galili1930 Yaakov (Jacob) Ohayon1932 Deborah Omer1932 Yael Rom1933 Arik Regev1934 Isabel Pedro1934 Daniel Kahneman1935 José Pepe Mujica1935 Tzvi Yanai1938 Nissim Gini1941 Deborah Teitelbaum1941 Tirza Atar1944 Eitan Naveh1944 Yona Wallach1947 Jacob Bekenstein
1950 and later
No birth year
The stories behind
places.
A home, a monument, or a street name.
Discover the history along the way.