Aviv Kochavi

Former IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General (Res.)

During Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi’s tenure, there was intensive operational activity to protect the country’s borders and interior, MABAM, the campaign between the wars, was significantly intensified, and three major operations were carried out in the Gaza Strip, all which led to a significant improvement in the security situation in the region.
In the field of force building, he adopted an updated approach to combat, harnessing innovation and technology to significantly improve intellingence, connectivity and readiness levels. 
Along with this, a strong emphasis was placed on the value of human dignity. Lieutenant General Kohavi oversaw the creation and expansion of many programs intended to strengthen the relationship between the IDF and society, including training for the periphery and integrating special populations into the IDF. As Chief of Staff, Kochavi demonstrated courage and leadership, determination, resourcefulness and tolerance, and became a role model for soldiers and civilians alike.

Sigalit Landau

Born in Jerusalem in 1969, Sigalit Landau is a multidisciplinary artist who works with installation, video, photography and sculpture. Landau graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 1994.
After several years in Europe and in the United States, she returned to Tel Aviv, and currently lives and works in Israel. Landau is the winner of numerous prestigious prizes and awards, and her work has been exhibited in museums, leading venues and major collections worldwide.
Working in a wide variety of media and materials, Landau’s work brings the marginal and the hidden to light, and builds bridges between the past and the future, the individual and the collective. Her art embraces such issues as struggle and wars, the environment, and the relationship between humans and nature. Landau’s creations challenge existential questions and bring new and incisive perspectives to our traditions, our heroes and our stories.

Rabbi Ya’akov Medan

Rabbi Yaakov Medan is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Gush Etzion, where he has lived since תשכ”חe (1988). He served in the Airborne Nahal Infantry unit and fought in the Golan Heights as a tank crew member in the Yiftach Brigade during the Yom Kippur War. As a fighter, settler, public educator and rabbi, he has unremittingly worked for the State of Israel on every front, acting always to connect and unify its various sectors through shared understandings and innovative agreements. Together with the late Prof. Ruth Gavison, he drafted the Gavison-Medan Covenant, a blueprint for defining the relationship between religion and state in Israel which earned the approval of both the religious and secular public. For publishing the convention, they won the AviChai Prize and the Movement for Tolerance Award. 

Prof. Joan Steitz

Joan Elaine Argetsinger Steitz is Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. As one of the pioneers of the field of RNA biology, Steitz is world-renowned for her many seminal contributions, and has won over 26 prestigious awards for her trailblazing work. Her discoveries involving RNA- including ground-breaking insights into how ribosomes interact with messenger RNA, the role of small nuclear RNA in splicing and how mRNA biogenesis is regulated. Her discoveries contributed insights into the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune disorders, cancer and viral diseases. Described as “one of the greatest scientists of our generation”, Steitz has used her platform to tirelessly promote women in science.

Zehu Ze!

entertainment troupe and television show

From 1978- when it was first broadcast on Israeli Educational Television- to today, airing on Kan 11, Zehu Ze! has been a cultural touchstone of gentle humor and classic Israeli songs. Its ability to raise morale in times of national emergencies- such as the Gulf War or the Coronavirus epidemic- and its significance as a social and generational unifier renders it a treasured part of Israeli culture and iconography.
In 2021, the Zehu Ze! cast won a Lifetime Achievement Award for their contribution to Israeli culture.
Contributing to the success of “Zehu Ze!”: Main Editor -
Eti Aneta-Segev, Main Writer - Daniel Lappin, 
Musical Director - Amir Lekner, production - Herzliya Studios

The following five actors have starred in
Zehu Ze! since its inception:

Dov (Doval’e) Glickman

Winner of two Ophir Awards and two Israeli Television Academy Awards, actor/comedian Dov Glickman began his career in the IDF’s naval entertainment troupe before becoming a member of the Haifa Theatre company, where he played a variety of roles. He has starred in numerous theater productions and films, including Big Bad Wolves (2013), for which he won the award for Best Actor at the Fantasporto festival, and Laces (2018) for which he won the Israeli Academy award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2013 and 2015, Glickman won an Israeli Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the wry and charismatic Rabbi Shulem Shtisel in the internationally acclaimed series Shtisel. 

Avi Kushnir

Actor and comedian Avi Kushnir has been part of Israeli culture since the early 1980s, appearing in dozens of theater productions, musicals, stand-up acts, films and television shows. In 1987, he represented the State of Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest as part of the comedic duo HaBatlanim. In 1989, he joined Zehu Ze!, and became part of the permanent band.
For his many activities over the years, he has won a variety of prestigious awards.

Gidi Gov

Gidi Gov’s long career as a singer and entertainer began in 1969, when he joined the Nahal unit’s entertainment troupe. Over the past 50 years, Gov has been a prominent member of well-known bands such as The Sixteenth Lamb and Kaveret (one of the most popular bands of the 1970s that represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest) in addition to his rich solo career as a singer and performer throughout the country.
A singer, actor, television and radio personality, Gov is one of Israel’s foremost public figures.

Shlomo Bar-Aba

Shlomo Bar- Aba is a veteran Israeli theater, film and television actor. He was the original Hebrew voice of Bert (Benz) on Rehov Sumsum (Sesame Street). His stage roles include Schweik in The Good Soldier and Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers. In 2011, Bar- Aba starred as an aging Talmudic scholar in Footnote, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and for which he received an Ophir award for Best Actor. Bar-Aba is the winner of the Israel Television Academy award for his role in the acclaimed 2016 series Uri and Ella.

Moni Moshonov

Shlomo “Moni” Moshonov is a veteran Israeli actor, children’s songwriter and performer.
 After studying drama at Tel Aviv University, he joined the Haifa Theater, remaining with the group for five years.
In 1977, he made his first cinema appearance in the film Masa Alunkot alongside Gidi Gov. Since then, he has starred in dozens of films and television series, including the film Late Marriage (2001), for which he won the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the sketch show Ktzarim (2004), for which he won an Israeli Film Academy Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. Moshonov is a cast member of the acclaimed program HaYehudim Baim, two-time winner of the Israel Television Academy Award.
Over his long career, Moshonov has won numerous awards, including the Mifal HaPais award for the Performing Arts in the Theater category.

Atidim

Atidim, which celebrates its 24th anniversary this year, is a joint military-civil organization that aims to bring about equal representation of youth from Israel’s underserved social and geographic periphery in the centers of excellence of the IDF, industry and high-tech in the fields of science and technology. Through a series of programs that include academic and professional education, personal development and job placement, Atidim has integrated over 8,100 graduates into prominent positions of the IDF and Israel’s high-tech market. Of these graduates, 78% have a degree in engineering and computer science. In 1999, when the Atidim program was first started, the percentage of people from the periphery who served in the IDF’s academic track stood at 2%. Over the last decade, thanks to Atidim, that number has risen to 30%.
In light of Atidim’s success, a decision was made by the previous Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi to double the number of Atidim graduates accepted to the IDF’s academic track and placed in top technical positions over the next 5 years.
In relation to the NIS 2 billion invested in Atidim over its 20 years of existence, the contribution of its graduates to the national product is 30 times higher. Until 2020, the contribution of Atidim graduates was measured at approximately NIS 18 billion, and we predict that by 2056, their contribution will reach NIS 65 billion - a very significant impact on the Israeli economy.