Renowned classical pianist Pnina Salzman was the first Israeli pianist to conquer concert stages in Europe and Asia in the early 1940s, before the establishment of the State of Israel. She also enriched the local music scene with her premieres of Israeli composers, who wrote for her knowing that their work would receive superb interpretation. She won the Israel Prize for her musical achievements.

Regina Resnik, world-famous opera singer and leading lady at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, reinvented herself multiple times in her career, taking on unexpected new roles. She toured through the United States and internationally before her first performance at the Met in 1944 and becoming the Met’s leading soprano.  In the 1970s she successfully began directing operas.

Painting and sculptor Antonietta Raphaël rose to fame in the 1950s. Her paintings were seen for the first time in Rome in 1929; during World War II, she took up sculpting, and in the 1950s, she rose to prominence and exhibited her works worldwide.

Following decades of intensive work in management of Israeli music institutions, Daniella Rabinovich became a leading figure in the field in Tel Aviv in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as director of the Tel Aviv Conservatory.

The Palmah was the elite fighting brigades of the underground paramilitary force Haganah, active between 1941 and Israel’s founding in 1948. Women were active in the Palmah, but were they considered equal to men?

Shuly Nathan’s clear and melodious voice represents some of the best qualities of true folk singing. After a meteoric rise to fame following her performance of Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold,” Nathan has toured worldwide, performed on Israeli television and radio, recorded albums, and partnered with Nechama Hendel. Her beloved varied repertoire consists of carefully selected outstanding songs, both old and new.

Music in Israel is a giant mosaic of cultures, styles, and musical traditions from the region and around the world. In every way and at all times, especially since the establishment of the state, women have been active in and have left their mark on the country’s musical life.

Erica Morini made her violin debut at age five, playing for Emperor Franz Joseph’s birthday party. She debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1921 and spent the next several decades touring the world, often adding concerts to her overbooked schedule to accommodate her many fans. Morini retired in 1976, the same year the city of New York honored her with a lifetime achievement award.

Bette Midler went from canning pineapples at a factory in Honolulu to starring in over 20 films, releasing two dozen records, and touring the world with record-breaking live concert performances. Midler got her start at a gay bathhouse in New York, where she developed the campy and confident persona “The Divine Miss M.” Her career in show business spans decades, old and new media, and musical genres.

Hephzibah Menuhin was a talented pianist and a dedicated human rights activist. After a successful international career performing with her brother Yehudi, Menuhin worked with her husband to assist the poor, the homeless, and the recently ill and served as president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Fritzi Massary was a prominent singer in Berlin prior to the onset of World War II. She reigned over the Berlin stage, singing the title role in Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow and Adele in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. Among the works created especially for her was the operetta Die Kaiserin by Leo Fall.

Both through her poetry and her teaching, Myra Cohn Livingston inspired children to explore the music of language. She eventually wrote more than twenty collections of as well as several books on writing poetry, serving as an inspiration for students to enjoy poetry.

Estelle Liebling was a talented opera singer who performed at the Dresden Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera and toured through the United States and Europe. She trained popular and Metropolitan Opera singers at her studio in New York for fifty years and wrote books on vocal training and compositions for piano and voice.

Rosina Lhévinne was one the most noted pianists of the last century, though she dedicated the majority of her career to teaching and supporting the career of her husband. One of the last artists in the nineteenth-century Russian pianistic tradition, she taught some of the most famous musicians of the 20th century at The Julliard School in New York.

Sara Levi-Tanai was the founder, choreographer, and artistic director of the Inbal Dance Theater. With an original style, she established a unique dance theater that combined the East and West and the early history of the Nation of Israel with the present, as well as creating a new language of movement in the world of dance that is called “the Inbal language.”

Ruth Meckler Laredo was a phenomenal pianist, known for her renditions of Rachmaninoff’s piano works, her performances of Scriabin’s sonatas, her work as a teacher, and for pioneering the “Concerts with Commentary” event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Starting her performance career at age eleven, Laredo was honored as Musician of the Month by High Fidelity/Musical America and was nominated three times for a Grammy Award. 

Isa Kremer (Belz, Bessarabia, 1887-Córdoba, Argentina, 1956) traveled the world performing art, folk, and classical music. She studied and sang opera in Italy but appeared as an art singer in Odessa, where she was the wife of Israel Heifetz, the editor of The Odessa News. Her great legacy is her Isa Kremer Sings Jewish Life in Song, a book and album of Jewish songs.