For decades, Yaacov Agam has been the lone Israeli at the top of the art world. World renowned for his innovative and influential sculpture, he is considered one of the primary founders of “optic” or “kinetic” art, in which optical illusions, variant colors, and malleable structures are employed so that the images and objects change as the viewer moves “through” the piece, seeing it from different angles.

Agam describes his work by saying, “My intention was to create a work of art which would transcend the visible, which cannot be perceived except in stages, with the understanding that it is a partial revelation and not the perpetuation of the existing. My aim is to show what can be seen within the limits of possibility which exists in the midst of coming into being.”

Born in Rishon LeZion, Agam was the son of a pious rabbi who gave him a background in Jewish knowledge, with special attraction to the Kabbalah, which Agam claims has influenced his work. Among his other interests, Agam designs Jewish ritual objects like mezuzahs.

One of his most famous works is the “Fire and Water” fountain in Israel’s Dizengoff Square. Recently removed as the square is renovated, it will be restored to its original place upon completion of the project. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

Joyce Azria is a true rarity: An Orthodox Jewish fashion maven. Part of a fashion dynasty founded by her father Max, Azria left her father’s company BCBG in 2017 to found “Avec Les Filles: A Story Told by Joyce Azria.”

Azria’s father, a traditional Sephardi Jew, made sure the family had “a lot of spirituality and excitement towards Hashem,” and this only deepened when Azria discovered Chabad in young adulthood.

“Having a strong moral center helps you be a better businesswoman, a better partner, a better wife, a better person,” she says. And as she sometimes tells overeager colleagues, “The world just stops for me on Shabbos.”

Her new fashion line is in keeping with her old BCBG tradition of low-to-medium priced clothing that remains stylish and, like her, it bridges two worlds: “I love creating for an Orthodox person and the world. … There is always something modest in the collection. At all times, there is always something you can pair or make modest.” (Photo credit: LinkedIn.)

Three of the record industry’s top executives, Craig Balsam, David Renzer, and Steve Schnur, have found themselves thrust to the forefront of the fight against BDS, and especially the movement’s unofficial public spokesman, former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters.

Renzer, chairman of Spirit Music Group, and Schnur, music president of Electronic Arts, are co-founders of Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a group dedicated to fighting anti-Israel actions from within the music and entertainment industries.

“We decided there needed to be a response to the BDS movement, because very few music executives are advocating for Israel,” said Balsam, co-founder of Razor & Tie Entertainment and advisory board member of CCFP. To fight BDS, he continued, CCFP works to support artists being “barraged” by BDS’s often bullying tactics and helps connect them with Israeli artists.

CCFP, he added, also believes in using music to “build bridges,” for instance by supporting programs in Israel that bring Arab and Jewish musicians together. (Photo credit: Facebook.)

Star of the massively successful sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” Mayim Bialik may be the most famous Orthodox Jew in America.

A four-time Emmy nominee, neuroscientist, and distant relative of Israel’s national poet Haim Nahman Bialik, Mayim Bialik was raised a Reform Jew but drifted toward Orthodoxy as she grew older, ultimately embracing a traditional lifestyle in which she views the Torah as a “handbook for life.” Most famously, this required a specially made dress for the Emmys that conformed to her standards of modesty.

Bialik has also proved an articulate defender of Israel and Judaism, helping to send bulletproof vests to IDF soldiers, participating in ads for BDS target Sodastream, and blasting anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour for her racist statement that feminists cannot be Zionists.

“As a feminist Zionist, I can’t believe I am being asked to choose or even defend my religious, historical and cultural identity,” Bialik wrote. (Photo credit: Facebook.)

“I feel Jewish, French, Tunisian, Zionist and very close to Israel, as well as a supporter of a Palestinian state. In short, one big balagan (mess),” says French-Jewish-Tunisian-Zionist comedian Michel Boujenah, and sadly, that “big balagan” has gotten him in trouble.

In June, the Carthage Festival of Music in Tunisia rescinded its invitation to Boujenah after protests by a BDS group. The decision was promptly denounced by the Tunisian Association for Support of Minorities, which called it an “anti-Jewish action.”

Boujenah is outspoken about his Zionism and strong support for Israel in a country that is often hostile to both. “We Diaspora Jews have no qualms about declaring our admiration for Israel,” he says.

He has also been among those who have brought attention to the antisemitic motive behind the April killing of French Jewish pensioner Sarah Halimi in Paris. Referring to her Islamist murderer, Kobili Trarore, Boujenah said on French TV, “He was crazy. But he was a crazy antisemite. There is no doubt about this question.” (Photo credit: Screenshot.)

Israel’s Athlete of the Year for 2016 was a highly unusual choice: A NASCAR driver named Alon Day. A native of Ashdod, Day gave up his dream of being a fighter pilot to race cars and has steadily risen to the top of the sport even though, ironically, it was banned in his native country until 2011.

All of 25 years old, Day scored major wins in NASCAR’s Euro Series and is now the North American branch’s first Jewish professional driver. “Being the first Israeli who is going to race in NASCAR’s highest series is a dream come true,” he said. In his debut race, he placed 13th, which was described as “a surprising result for a rookie in his first race.”

Many now see him as a sign that NASCAR can diversify and create an appeal broader than its core audience of white males. Indeed, one supporter calls him “the standard bearer for American Jews and Israel” in this “quintessentially American sport.” (Photo credit: Facebook.)

From cantor to heavy metal star, David Draiman’s journey to becoming frontman of the popular band Disturbed is unusual to say the least.

Draiman attended yeshiva, studied to be a chazzan, has a brother who lives in Israel - where he travels for vacations - and fronted a band that has sold 11 million records. Indeed, he may be the only heavy metal star in the world whose family once hoped he would become a rabbi and says he could probably still lead a High Holiday service if called upon.

Next up for Draiman is an acoustic EP and a new album from “Disturbed.” Though he now lives a secular lifestyle, Draiman is unafraid of asserting his Jewish identity through his music, for instance, by writing a song against Holocaust denial and slamming former Iranian president and noted antisemite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“I never pull any punches,” he says, “and I will never apologize for who I am or where I come from.” (Photo credit: Twitter/ David Draiman.)

“Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, ‘Are my songs literature?’” Bob Dylan wrote to the Nobel Prize Committee, but by that time the committee had already decided that for him. At the end of 2016, it awarded the 76-year-old legendary singer-songwriter the Nobel Prize for Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

With this award, the former Robert Allen Zimmerman cemented his legacy as one of the greatest Jewish artists of the century, his work encompassing everything from folk to rock 'n' roll to country music to gospel to blues to, most recently, the great American songbook.

Despite being mostly private about his faith and briefly converting to born-again Christianity, Dylan has led a surprisingly Jewish life. He grew up in a tight knit Jewish community in Minnesota, and as one article points out, wore a kippa and tallit at his son’s bar mitzvah at the Western Wall, sang “Hava Nagilah” at a Chabad telethon, and wrote the ferociously pro-Israel “Neighborhood Bully.” He has also peppered his work with biblical references, studied the Talmud, adapted Jewish prayers to songs like “Forever Young,” and even briefly flirted with the JDL.

Reflecting on his long strange trip in his Nobel acceptance speech, Dylan said, “I return once again to Homer, who says, ‘Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story.’” (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

With the massive success of “Wonder Woman,” Gal Gadot may have the distinction of being the single most famous Israeli on the planet. The former IDF combat instructor, who first made her name as Miss Israel before crossing into modeling – once featuring in a “Maxim” photo spread of the girls of the IDF – and then acting, is now a bona fide superstar and feminist icon.

She has also faced the typical discrimination met by Israelis in the public eye, and done so with both defiance and grace. Despite having her films banned in Arab countries and being attacked for her patriotic beliefs, Gadot has not backed down, once famously posting an image on Facebook of her and her daughter praying for IDF soldiers during the 2014 Gaza War.

“I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens,” she wrote. “Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children...We shall overcome!!! Shabbat Shalom!”
(Photo credit: Facebook.)

You know you’ve arrived as a soccer player when someone decides you’re worth four million pounds. That’s precisely what British soccer team Reading was reportedly willing to pay for Israeli striker Tomer Hemed, currently of Brighton.

Hemed’s high price has been hard earned. He started as a teenager in the youth leagues in the early 2000s, got called up to Maccabi Haifa and was tossed between various teams in the Israeli Premier League. In 2011 he went international, playing for Mallorca and then Almeria before ending up at Brighton & Hove Albion. This past year, Hemed played a key role in the club’s ascension to the English Premier League for the first time in history.

At the same time, Hemed is reportedly “a leading figure” in Brighton’s Jewish community, attending synagogue every Friday and lighting candles at a Chanukah ceremony, which he called “an emotional moment for me. … For me to be away from Israel and get a lot of love is very important.”

In March, Hemed displayed his national and religious pride with a Star of David haircut that he showed off on social media. ( Photo credit: Twitter.)

The current proverbial toast of Broadway is unquestionably Ben Platt, who took home the 2017 Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for his nakedly emotional performance in “Dear Evan Hansen.”

The tale of a high schooler with social anxiety disorder who must contend with the suicide of a fellow student, the show picked up its own Tony for Best Musical (winning six in total) and became beloved of audiences for its wrenching but cathartic intensity.

Born to a Jewish family steeped in musical theater, Platt was universally praised for sustaining the show’s emotional rollercoaster while still hitting every note perfectly. TV and Broadway star Neil Patrick Harris simply marveled, “He sings through tears!”

Platt took the opportunity of his Tony acceptance speech to encourage kids to embrace being different. “To all young people watching at home,” he said, “don’t waste any time trying to be like anybody else because the things that make you strange are the things that make you powerful.”

Displaying pride in his Jewish heritage during a “Late Night With Seth Meyers” appearance last year, Platt belted out a Hebrew version of the song “Luck Be a Lady,” which he said he learned at Jewish summer camp. (Photo credit: Twitter.)

Israeli Or Sasson won the bronze medal in judo at the Rio Olympics, but has become famous for his grace under pressure in the face of the worst sportsmanship.

When Sasson soundly defeated Egyptian judoka Islam El Shahaby in a first round bout at the Rio games, El Shahaby broke with tradition and protocol by refusing to shake the Israeli’s hand.

Sasson stood his ground and did not leave the ring, leaving his opponent to slink away to a round of boos from the audience. El Shahaby promptly announced he was quitting judo for good.

Sasson received widespread praise for his dignified response to the snub and went on to win the bronze medal. “My dream came true in front of my eyes,” he said afterward. “I have worked so hard for this. I’ve had so many wins and so many losses and today was my day. I defeated all my fears.” (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

Acclaimed actress Rachel Weisz once described herself as a “Jew in disguise,” openly Jewish but never playing Jewish roles. This changed with her starring role in “Denial,” about the notorious case in which British Holocaust denier David Irving sued Jewish scholar Deborah Lipstadt for libel, effectively putting the Holocaust on trial.

Saying she was raised “culturally” Jewish, Weisz had a strong personal connection to the material, as her parents were refugees from Hitler, with her mother just barely escaping the Nazi leader’s takeover of Austria in 1939.

The film, she says, is not about the Holocaust, however, but about much larger themes: “How we’re now living in this kind of relativist, what they’re now calling post-truth, world, and everything is up for grabs.” Ultimately, she says, “It’s about the insanity of trying to put fact on trial.” (Photo credit: Screenshot.)

Top British band Radiohead and its frontman Thom Yorke might seem unlikely activists for Israel, but that was effectively what they became in 2017, when the BDS movement made an unsuccessful attempt to bully them into canceling a concert in Tel Aviv.

The boycotters threw everything they had at Radiohead, but the band remained defiant, with Yorke flipping off pro-Palestinian demonstrators at one concert.

As Yorke put it in a “Rolling Stone” interview, “It’s deeply distressing that they choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw s**t at us in public. It’s deeply disrespectful to assume that we’re either being misinformed or that we’re so retarded we can’t make these decisions ourselves. I thought it was patronizing in the extreme. It’s offensive.”

In the end, the band, which found an enthusiastic fan base in Israel during its early days, treated enraptured Tel Avivians to its longest concert in years to great acclaim. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.)