Country Israel First awarded 1953 | Presented by State of Israel Ceremony date 2 May 2017 | |
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Awarded for Those who have displayed excellence in their field(s), or have contributed strongly to Israeli culture or the State Official website cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/UNITS/PrasIsrael Winners Arie Vardi, Arie Vardi, Music Prize, Music Prize, Malka Margalit, Malka Margalit, Education Prize, Education Prize, Yehuda Liebes, Yehuda Liebes, Jewish Thought Prize, Jewish Thought Prize, Ágnes Keleti, Ágnes Keleti, Sports Prize, Sports Prize, Yosef Yarden, Yosef Yarden, Life Sciences Prize, Life Sciences Prize, Uri Shaked, Uri Shaked, Engineering Prize, Engineering Prize, Nili Cohen, Nili Cohen, Law Prize, Law Prize, Meir Lahav, Meir Lahav, Physics Prize, Physics Prize, Meir Lahav, Meir Lahav, Chemistry Prize, Chemistry Prize, Nurit Hirsh, Nurit Hirsh, Hebrew Song Prize, Hebrew Song Prize, Eviatar Nevo, Eviatar Nevo, Life Sciences Prize, Life Sciences Prize, Yohanan Friedmann, Yohanan Friedmann, Middle Eastern Studies Prize, Middle Eastern Studies Prize, David Dean Shulman, David Dean Shulman, Philosophy Prize, Philosophy Prize, David Dean Shulman, David Dean Shulman, Religious Studies Prize, Religious Studies Prize, Doron Almog, Doron Almog, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Yosef Kats, Yosef Kats, Land of Israel Prize, Land of Israel Prize, Yosef Kats, Yosef Kats, Geography Prize, Geography Prize, Yosef Kats, Yosef Kats, Archaeology Prize, Archaeology Prize, Eli Sadan, Eli Sadan, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Leslie Leiserowitz, Leslie Leiserowitz, Physics Prize, Physics Prize, Leslie Leiserowitz, Leslie Leiserowitz, Chemistry Prize, Chemistry Prize, Edit Doron, Edit Doron, Linguistics Prize, Linguistics Prize, Hadas Ophrat, Hadas Ophrat, Stage Arts Prize, Stage Arts Prize, Shimon Ullman, Shimon Ullman, Mathematics Prize, Mathematics Prize, Shimon Ullman, Shimon Ullman, Computer Sciences Prize, Computer Sciences Prize, Shmuel Ahituv, Shmuel Ahituv, Bible Studies Prize, Bible Studies Prize, Chaim Topol, Chaim Topol, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize, David Weisburd, David Weisburd, Social Work Prize, Social Work Prize, Esther Herlitz, Esther Herlitz, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Harold Zvi Schiffrin, Harold Zvi Schiffrin, Far Eastern Studies Prize, Far Eastern Studies Prize, Erez Biton, Erez Biton, Hebrew Poetry Prize, Hebrew Poetry Prize, Erez Biton, Erez Biton, Hebrew Literature Prize, Hebrew Literature Prize, David Gurfinkel, David Gurfinkel, Cinema Prize, Cinema Prize, Zelig Eshhar, Zelig Eshhar, Life Sciences Prize, Life Sciences Prize, Jaacov Katan, Jaacov Katan, Agriculture Prize, Agriculture Prize, Jaacov Katan, Jaacov Katan, Environmental Science Prize, Environmental Science Prize, Mordechai Segev, Mordechai Segev, Physics Prize, Physics Prize, Mordechai Segev, Mordechai Segev, Chemistry Prize, Chemistry Prize, Michal Na'aman, Michal Na'aman, Visual Arts Prize, Visual Arts Prize, Shamma Friedman, Shamma Friedman, Talmud Prize, Talmud Prize, Irad Malkin, Irad Malkin, History Prize, History Prize, Marta Weinstock-Rosin, Marta Weinstock-Rosin, Medicine Prize, Medicine Prize, Adina Bar-Shalom, Adina Bar-Shalom, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Aharon Lichtenstein, Aharon Lichtenstein, Jewish Literature Prize, Jewish Literature Prize, Haim Levy, Haim Levy, Political Science Prize, Political Science Prize, Haim Levy, Haim Levy, Management Prize, Management Prize, Avi Naor, Avi Naor, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Azaria Alon, Azaria Alon, Lifetime Achievement Prize, Lifetime Achievement Prize | ||
David shulman israel prize winner donates cash award for ta ayush
The Israel Prize (Hebrew: פרס ישראל) is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is generally regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Knesset (Israel's legislature), and the Supreme Court President. The prize was set up in 1953 at the initiative of the Minister of Education Ben-Zion Dinor, who himself went on to win the prize in 1958 and 1973.
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Jdc israel awarded with the israel prize in 2007
Awarding the prize
The prize is awarded in the following four areas, with the precise subfields changing from year to year in a cycle of 4 to 7 years, except for the last area, which is awarded annually:
The recipients of the prize are Israeli citizens or organizations who have displayed excellence in their field(s), or have contributed strongly to Israeli culture. The winners are selected by committees of judges, who pass on their recommendations to the Minister of Education. Prize winners are elected by ad-hoc committees, appointed by the minister of education for each category each year. Decisions of the committee must be unanimous. The prize money was NIS 75,000 as of 2008.
Recipients
As of 2009, the prize has been awarded 633 times. Prominent winners include individuals such as Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Martin Buber, Abba Eban, A. B. Yehoshua, Israel Aumann, Golda Meir, Amos Oz, Ephraim Kishon, Naomi Shemer, David Benvenisti and Teddy Kollek, and organizations such as Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jewish Agency, Yad Vashem and Jewish National Fund. Though the prize is generally awarded to Israeli citizens only, in exceptional cases it can be awarded to non-Israelis who have held Israeli residency for many years. Zubin Mehta received a special award of the Israel Prize in 1991. Mehta is originally from India, and is music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Controversy
The decision to award the prize to specific individuals has sometimes led to impassioned political debate. In 1993, the strong reaction of then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin against the nomination of Yeshayahu Leibowitz led Leibowitz to decline the prize. In 2004, Education and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, twice sent the decision to award the prize to sculptor Yigal Tumarkin back to the prize committee. Cases in which the decision was brought before the Supreme Court of Israel included the prizes given to publicist Shmuel Shnitzer, politician Shulamit Aloni, professor Zeev Sternhell and Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club chairman Shimon Mizrahi.
On occasion, the committee has been criticized for failing to award the prize to a specific individual. For example, many have expressed criticism (or regret) that the poet Natan Yonatan never received the prize.
In other cases, the recipients were reluctant to retrieve the prize. These include Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and performer Uri Zohar. In 2003, artist Moshe Gershoni informed the press that he will not shake the hands of the prime minister and education minister, and in return his prize was annulled.
Another criticism of the prize is that the large majority of winners have been male, Jewish, and secular. Although around 25% of Israel's population is non-Jewish, as of 2010 fewer than 2% of winners have been non-Jewish. These include one Arab Muslim (diplomat Ali Yahya), two Arab Christians (writer Emile Habibi and actor Makram Khoury), one Circassian (industrialist Eldin Khatukai), two Druze (judge Amin Tarif and government official Kamal Mansour), and one French Catholic (theologian Marcel-Jacques Dubois). Awarding the prize to Habibi resulted in physicist and politician Yuval Ne'eman relinquishing his own prize.
In February 2015, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu vetoed the appointment of two members of the selection panel for the Israel Prize in Literature after they had already started their work, prompting the other three members, including Ziva Ben-Porat, to resign in protest. Netanyahu explained that the two panel members were politically unsuitable and that "[t]oo often, it seemed that the extreme panel members were bestowing the prizes on their friends". One of the candidates for the prize, Yigal Schwartz of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev withdrew his nomination and called on other candidates to do the same, writing that the situation was an "unprecedented scandal", and that the action was a "continuation of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s deliberate policy of undermining Israel’s elites to gain votes from other groups." Over the next few days, members of the committees for the literary research and film prizes also resigned, leaving only two members from the original 13 of the three committees, and many other candidates for the prizes withdrew their nominations. David Grossman withdrew his candidature with the explanation that "Netanyahu's move is a cynical and destructive ploy that violates the freedom of spirit, thought and creativity of Israel, and I refuse to cooperate with it".