Compiled by Dan Seligson
To prepare for Israel’s 70th birthday, here are 70 fun facts about Israeli food, culture, geography, academics and more!
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- Cherry tomatoes were engineered in Israel.
- Israel is the only county to have more trees today than it did 50 years ago.
- An Israeli company developed the world’s first jellyfish repellent.
- Israeli Linor Abargil won the Miss World contest in 1998. She went on to campaign against sexual violence.
- Israel was the first country to conform to an international standard that certifies diamonds as being “conflict free.”
- After Tokyo and New York City, Tel Aviv has the most sushi restaurants per capita.
- Israel is the only country to have a sacred language (Hebrew) as its national tongue.
- Thanks to its national snack (think peanut Cheetos), babies in Israel are 10 times less likely to suffer from peanut allergies.
- Israel’s cows produce more milk than cows from other countries.
- The “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” TV series was produced by an Israeli named Haim Saban.
- People of the book: Israel publishes more books per capita than any other country.
- Palwin wine, Israel’s oldest brand, was first produced by the Palestine Wine and Trading Company, established in 1898.
- Israel has the world’s highest rate of entrepreneurship among women.
- There are more than 40 kosher McDonald’s in Israel. The only one outside Israel is in Bueños Aires.
- In 1992, Israel experienced such a severe winter that snow fell in the Negev desert.
- Israel has the highest number of university degrees per capita than any other country.
- Haifa’s subway system is one of the world’s smallest, with four carriages and just over one mile of track.
- Buses around Israel have signs that quote the biblical passage, “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old.”
- One million notes are left in the Kotel (Western Wall) each year. They are cleaned out twice a year, before Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
- The largest known dog cemetery in the ancient world was unearthed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
- Beersheva has the largest number of chess grandmasters per capita of any city in the world.
- Israeli bank notes have Braille on them to assist the blind.
- The glue on Israeli stamps is kosher.
- Israel celebrates Mother’s Day on Shevat 30, the birthday of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah.
- Microsoft has more employees in Israel than it does per capita anywhere in the world.
- A group in Netanya broke the world record for the largest sock mosaic, using 12,000 in total.
- Coffee and cafés are so good in Israel that it’s the only country where Starbucks failed trying to break into the local market.
- Israel has one of the highest concentrations of bird traffic in the world—500 million migrating birds cross its airspace each year.
- Every year, an Israeli Arab hotel manager named Jaaber Hussein buys all the state’s chametz (leavened products) for Passover.
- A green pepper grown in Moshav Ein Yahav claimed the record for the world’s largest, weighing in at over a pound.
- The most popular name for Israeli babies—both boys and girls—is “Noam.
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- Israel’s Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean.
- Bamba, Israel’s favorite snack, was first produced in 1964 and was cheese-flavored. Allergy-fighting peanut butter was introduced two years later.
- Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world.
- More than nine out of 10 Israeli homes use solar power to heat water.
- Feeling adventurous? You can buy hummus-flavored ice cream in Jaffa.
- Napoleon tried to lay siege to Acre in 1799. There is a “Napoleon Hill” in the city.
- There are 285 replica models of historical, cultural and religious sites on display at the Mini Israel Museum in Lod.
- Israel is the first country to place a ban on the use of underweight models on catwalks.
- Israeli inventor Rafi Yoeli is building the world’s first flying car.
- Israelis who observe Shabbat can buy car insurance that doesn’t cover Saturdays.
- The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is the world’s oldest continuously used cemetery.
- The animals at the Jerusalem biblical zoo are fed kosher for Passover food over the holiday.
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- Israel has more orchestras per capita than any other country.
- Leon Uris’s Israel epic “Exodus” stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year in 1958.
- Israeli rabbis, with help from scientists, have ruled that giraffe milk is kosher.
- Alexander the Great is said to have entered Israel in 333 BCE via the caves at Rosh Hanikra.
- Beersheba is twinned with 14 towns and cities around the world.
- Israeli academics produce more scientific papers per capita than anywhere else in the world.
- Israel has appeared in the World Cup finals only once, in 1970.
- Philanthropist Baron de Rothschild died in 1934 in France and his remains were transported to Israel once it became a state.
- Israel is one of only three democracies in the world without a codified constitution. The others are Britain and New Zealand.
- By law, the Jewish National and University Library receives copies of every book printed in Israel.
- Israel has more computers per capita than any other country.
- The most common street name in Israel is “Ha’Zait,” which means “Olive Street.”
- Per capita, Israelis are the world’s biggest consumers of fruits and vegetables.
- Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart organization performs life-saving heart operations for children worldwide, including many Palestinians, free of charge.
- Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians is increasing.
- Israel has its own day-long festival of love, called Tu B’Av.
- Relative to its population, Israel has absorbed more immigrants than any other country, with newcomers from more than 100 countries.
- Voicemail technology was developed in Israel.
- Israeli humanitarian aid workers are often the first to respond to disasters around the world.
- Israel is home to the world’s only theater company comprised entirely of deaf and blind actors.
- Life expectancy in Israel is among the highest in the world, at 82 years.
- Israel has won more Nobel Prizes than all other Middle East countries combined.
- The World Centre of the Bahai faith is in the Israeli cities of Acre and Haifa.
- Golda Meir was the third woman in history to serve as prime minister.
- Team Israel won four games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic without a single player on an MLB roster.
- Israel is the 11th happiest country in the world (the United States is 14th) of more than 150 ranked.
- Jerusalem has over 1,500 public parks and gardens.
Originally published on JewishBoston.com
