The Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel is mainly a "Who's Who" Encyclopedia of the yishuv and the first 22 years of the state of Israel.
The Encyclopedia was compiled and published by David Tidhar [1] over 23 years and contains 19 volumes and about 6,000 biographies of Jewish leaders and settlers in Palestine from the 19th century up to the year 1970. Touro College, together with the Tidhar family, established a website containing the Encyclopedia and made it freely available to the public.
Israel Aharoni was a zoologist in Ottoman and British Palestine widely known as the "first Hebrew zoologist." Aharoni discovered 30 previously unknown species of animals, insects and birds, and is credited with giving them Hebrew names.
Pinchas Kehati was a Polish-Israeli rabbi, teacher, and author. He is best known as the author of Mishnayot Mevoarot which is a commentary and elucidation on the entire Mishnah written in Modern Hebrew.
The Tiberias massacre took place on 2 October 1938, during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Tiberias, then located in the British Mandate of Palestine and today is located in the State of Israel.
Shmuel Tolkowsky was a Belgian-born agronomist, Zionist and Israeli diplomat. He became the assistant to Chaim Weizmann and Nachum Sokolov, two important leaders of the Zionist Movement. Shmuel Tolkowsky himself was the son-in-law of Yitzhak Goldberg, a founder of the Jewish Foundation Fund.
Ya'akov Geri, also known as Jack Gering. was an Israeli lawyer who served as Minister of Trade and Industry between November 1950 and October 1951, although he never was a Knesset member.
Avraham-Haim Shag was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Assembly of Representatives and the Knesset.
Siegfried Lehmann was an Israeli educator and founder and director of the Ben Shemen Youth Village.
Events in the year 1958 in Israel.
Yitzhak Ben-Hezekiah Yosef Kovo (1770–1854) was born in the large Sephardi community of Ottoman Salonica and later settled in Ottoman-era Jerusalem. In 1848 he succeeded Chaim Abraham Gagin as hacham bashi aged 78. Throughout his career he went on fundraising missions to Poland, London and Egypt. In 1854, while in Alexandria, he died. He authored many works on the Mishnah, Talmud and Shulchan Aruch and wrote responsa.
Shlomo Morag, also spelled Shelomo Morag, was an Israeli professor at the department of Hebrew Language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Morag founded the Jewish Oral Traditions Research Center at the Hebrew University and served as the head of Ben Zvi Institute for the study of Jewish communities in the East for several years. He was a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research.
Nisan Bak was a leader of the Hasidic Jewish community of the Old Yishuv in Ottoman Palestine. He was the founder of two Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Kirya Ne'emana and a Yemenite Jewish neighborhood, and builder of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, also known as the Nisan Bak Shul.
Natan Shalem was an Israeli geographer, geologist and researcher.
Bernard Friedberg was an Austrian Hebraist, scholar and bibliographer.
David Tidhar was a Jewish-Israeli police officer, private detective and author.
Yosef Yitzhak "Yoshya" Rivlin was an Orthodox Jewish scholar, writer, and community leader in the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem. Scion of a family of Perushim, disciples of the Vilna Gaon who immigrated to Israel in the early 19th century, Rivlin spearheaded the establishment of the first Jewish neighborhoods outside the Old City walls. He helped found a total of 13 neighborhoods, beginning with Nahalat Shiv'a and Mea Shearim. His activities earned him the nickname Shtetlmacher ("Town-Maker"). He directed the Central Committee of Knesseth Israel, the supreme council of the Ashkenazi community in the Old Yishuv, for over 30 years.
Shalom Streit (Hebrew: שלום שטרייט; June 5, 1888 – June 23, 1946) was a Hebrew-language educator, literary critic, and writer. Born in Galicia, he emigrated to Palestine and spent most of his life there, founding the moshav of Kfar Malal and a high school in Petah Tikva. He taught at the high school, published literary criticism, and hosted literary meetings. His daughter was Esther Streit-Wurzel, a major Israeli young-adult Hebrew novelist.
Haim Harari (Hebrew: חיים הררי (שניאור זלמן בלומברג was a Hebrew teacher, writer, and publicist, member of the Second Assembly of Representatives, an amateur actor and director, one of the founders of the 'Hebrew Stage Lovers Association', and one of the founders of Tel Aviv.
Yehudit Harari was an educator, teacher, kindergarten teacher, and writer, one of the founders of Tel Aviv. She was one of the founders of the "Hebrew Stage Enthusiasts Association" and a member of the Habimah Theater council, winner of the honorary prize for education of the Tel Aviv Municipality in 1965.
David Ma'aravi, an early Israeli sculptor, painter and composer. A fundamental figure in the development of Israeli music and art.
Ezekiel Judah, or Yehezkel Yehuda or Yahuda or Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sliman was a Jewish communal leader, indigo, muslin and silk trader, philanthropist and talmudist of Baghdad, who migrated to India, leading the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata in his lifetime and establishing the city's first synagogues.