List of Israeli Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews

This is a list of notable Mizrahi Jews and Sephardi Jews in Israel, including both original immigrants who obtained Israeli citizenship and their Israeli descendants.

Traditionally the terms "Mizrahi Jews" and "Sephardi Jews" were used as all encompassing terms referring to the Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus but due to the melting pot effect of the Israeli society the terms have gradually become more vague. Many Israeli descendants of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jewish immigrants have gradually adopted the Israeli culture and intermarried with descendants of other Jewish communities.

Politicians

• Aryeh Deri - politician, and former leader of Israel's Shas Party
• Aryeh Bibi - politician, Iraqi Jewish member of Knesset for Kadima. Born in Baghdad.
• Robert Tiviaev- politician, Mountain Jew, current member of Knesset for Kadima. Born in Daghestan.
• Eli Yishai - politician, and current leader of Israel's Shas Party
• Silvan Shalom - politician who previously served as Israel's Foreign Minister and Finance Minister
• Dalya Itzik - politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Kadima
• Shlomo Ben Ami - diplomat, politician and historian
• Amir Peretz - politician and member of the Knesset for the Labour Party
• David Levy - politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1969 and 2006
• Meir Sheetrit - politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Kadima
• Yoel Hasson - politician, member of Knesset for Kadima.
• Yitzhak Mordechai - former general and former politician
• Michael Ben-Ari – Israeli politician and current member of the Knesset
• Mordechai Zar – Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset
• Moshe Katsav – Former President of Israel (2000–2007)
• Shaul Mofaz – Former Israeli Minister of Defense, currently number two on the Kadima list in the Knesset
• Yaakov Edri - Member of Knesset for Kadima. Born In Morocco.
• Orly Levy – former model who is currently a politician
• Haim Amsalem – politician. Former member of the Shas Party. In 2011 Amsalem established the Whole Nation party.

Military

• Gabi Ashkenazi – Chief of the IDF General Staff (2007–2011)
• Eli Cohen – Israeli spy who worked in Syria and was eventually exposed and executed in Syria in 1965
• Moshe Barazani - Iraqi Kurdish Jew and a member of Lehi
• Yitzhak Mordechai - former general and former politician
• Eitan Ben Eliyahu – Former Major General in the Israeli Defence Forces
• Dan Halutz – Former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces
• Shaul Mofaz – Former Israeli Minister of Defense, currently number two on the Kadima list in the Knesset

Activists

• Abie Nathan – Humanitarian and peace activist

Religious figures

• Moshe Shmuel Shapira, rosh yeshiva of Beer Yaakov
• Mordechai Eliyahu, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel 1983–93, (1929–2010)
• Ovadia Yoseph
• Yosef Sholom Eliashiv
• Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel and Rishon LeZion
• Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, Israeli Jewish spiritual leader and Kabbalist who lives in New York City.
• Rabbi Shalom Arush, is an Israeli Breslov rabbi and founder of the Chut Shel Chessed Institutions. Arush is considered one of today's leading Hasidic spiritual guides.
• Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, an Sephardic Haredi rabbi
• Elazar Abuhatzeira, Orthodox Sefardi rabbi and kabbalist.
• Yosef Qafih, Yemen-born rabbi and scholar

Businesspeople and entrepreneurs

• Shai Agassi - Israeli entrepreneur. The founder and CEO of Better Place, which has developed a model and infrastructure for employing electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel technology.
• Haim Saban – Israeli-American television and media proprietor. Saban was ranked by Forbes as the 104th richest person in America.
• Lev Leviev – diamond tycoon

Academic figures

• Michel Abitbol, historian, professor, and chair of the Department of African Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Amnon Netzer – historian, researcher, professor and journalist.
• Avshalom Elitzur – physicist and philosopher
• Moshe Bar-Asher – linguist

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Cultural figures

Film, TV, and stage

Models

• Moran Atias – model
• Sandy Bar – model and actress
• Yael Abecassis – model and actress
• Linor Abargil – Israeli beauty pageant contestant who won the Miss World beauty pageant in 1998
• Miri Bohadana – model and actress
• Ilanit Levi – model and actress
• Orly Levy – former model who is currently a politician
• Mali Levi – model and actress
• Natalie Attiya – model and actress
• Becky Griffin – model, TV presenter and an actress
• Yehuda Levi - actor and model

Popular musicians

Various

• Adi Nes – Photographer

Sports

Association Football

• Dudu Aouate – goalkeeper (RCD Mallorca, national team)
• Gai Assulin – winger/attacking midfielder (Manchester City, national team)
• Pini Balili, Israel/Turkey – striker (Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv, national team)
• Yossi Benayoun – attacking midfielder, national team captain, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Maccabi Haifa, Racing Santander, West Ham United, Liverpool, Chelsea
• Tal Ben Haim – center back/right back, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, West Ham United
• Avi Cohen – defender, Liverpool and national team
• Yaniv Katan – forward/winger (Maccabi Haifa, national team)
• Eli Ohana – won UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and Bravo Award (most outstanding young player in Europe); national team; manager
• Haim Revivo – attacking/side midfielder (national team), Maccabi Haifa, Celta de Vigo, Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray
• Idan Tal – midfielder (Beitar Jerusalem FC & national team)
• Itzik Zohar – attacking midfielder (national team), Maccabi Jaffa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Royal Antwerp, Beitar Jerusalem, Crystal Palace, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Herzliya, Maccabi Netanya, F.C. Ashdod, Hapoel Nazareth Illit

Sailing

• Shahar Tzuberi, Israel, windsurfer, Olympic bronze (RS:X discipline); 2009 & 2010 European Windsurf champion

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Criminals

• Benny Sela – convicted serial [...] and escapee
• Eden-Nathan Zada – Israeli [...] who was an army defector when he committed the 2005 Shfar'am shooting attack in which he used his military rifle to shot the passengers of a commuter bus in the Arab village of Shfar'am, murdering four Arab citizens of Israel and wounding twenty-two others.
• Yigal Amir – assassin of the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
• Yaakov Alperon – Israeli mobster who was murdered in a car bomb attack
• Uzi Meshulam – leader of a radical group of Yemenite Jews who in 1994 violently resisted Israeli law enforcement authorities.
• Aryeh Deri – politician, and former leader of Israel's Shas Party. During 1999 Deri was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as Interior Minister and given a three-year jail sentence.
• Yitzhak Mordechai – former general and former politician. Mordechai retired from political life after being convicted of harassing and sexually assaulting two women during his military service.
• Moshe Katsav – Former President of Israel (2000–2007). On 30 December 2010 Katsav was convicted of two counts of [...] and obstruction of justice.
• Felix Halfon – Former Israeli footballer who in 2004 was convicted of [...] smuggling.

See also

• Israelis
• List of notable Israelis
• List of Jews from the Arab World

References

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