Food
This flatbread baked in a tabun oven is considered the oldest food in Israeli culinary tradition.
What is Pita/Laffa
This annual Israeli song competition launched major careers and preceded Eurovision as the country's main pop showcase.
What is the Israel Song Festival?
This term describes the revival of Hebrew as a spoken everyday language, largely credited to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.
What is the Hebrew revival?
This relatively minor Jewish holiday involving jelly donuts and candle-lighting has become a major cultural moment partly due to its proximity to Christmas.
What is Hanukkah?
Israel calls this conflict its War of Independence.
What is the 1948 War?
This chickpea-based dish sparked a dispute between Israel and Lebanon over which nation can claim it.
What is hummus?
This communal circle dance became a symbol of early Zionist pioneering spirit and is still performed at celebrations.
What is the hora?
This Hebrew word for a native-born Israeli also refers to a local cactus: prickly outside, sweet inside.
What is Sabra?
This weeklong Torah-mandated holiday involves a temporary outdoor hut decorated with fruit and palm branches.
What is Sukkot?
This Zionist leader convened the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and wrote "The Jewish State" in 1896.
Who is Theodore Herzl?
This Israeli street food served in pita was introduced by Egyptian Jewish immigrants in the 1950s.
What is falafel?
This Yemenite-Israeli singer, known as the Queen of Israeli pop, had an international 1988 dance hit.
Who is Ofra Haza?
This Hebrew term for immigration to Israel also means "ascent" or "going up."
What is aliyah?
This solemn fast day commemorates the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem and is observed in late summer.
What is Tisha B'Av?
This 1991 Israeli military operation airlifted nearly 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in a single 36-hour period.
What is Operation Solomon?
This slow-cooked North African Jewish stew simmered overnight for Shabbat combines eggs, chickpeas, and meat.
What is hamin?
This genre blending Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences was long stigmatized but is now Israel's dominant pop sound.
What is Mizrahi music?
This Hebrew phrase meaning "it will be okay" reflects a core Israeli attitude toward uncertainty and hardship.
What is beseder?
This Jewish holiday celebrated 50 days after Passover marks the giving of the Torah and is observed with all-night study.
What is Shavuot?
This communal agricultural movement, founded at Degania in 1910, became central to early Zionist settlement and Israeli identity.
What is the kibbutz?
This flaky layered Yemenite bread, now an Israeli staple, is typically served with zhug and honey.
What is malawach?
This Israeli conductor led the Berlin Philharmonic from 1989 to 2002 and co-founded an Arab-Israeli youth orchestra.
Who is Daniel Barenboim?
This Hebrew term — borrowed from Arabic — describes the Israeli cultural norm of blunt, unfiltered communication.
What is dugri?
This Israeli national holiday celebrated with barbecues and fireworks marks the country's 1948 Declaration of Independence.
What is Yom HaAtzmaut?
This 1972 tragedy in which 11 Israeli Olympic athletes were murdered by militants shaped Israeli security doctrine permanently.
What is the Munich massacre?