The Israel Prize (Hebrew: פרס ישראל‎) is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely 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 Knesset (Israel's legislature) chairperson, 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.

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 education minister.

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.

Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35

Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or  /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.

Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.^{[neutrality is disputed]} Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.

Yehoram Gaon (Hebrew: יהורם גאון) (informally, Yoram Gaon) (born December 28, 1939) is a Jewish Israeli singer, actor, director, producer, TV and radio host, and public figure. He has also written and edited books on Israeli culture.

The son of Sephardic Jewish parents—a Macedonian father and Turkish mother, both immigrants to Israel—he became an early inspiration of "solidarity and pride" for the Sephardic community.

Gaon was born in the Beit Hakerem section of Jerusalem in 1939. His father, Moshe-David Gaon, a well-known historian, was born in Sarajevo in 1889, and immigrated to British mandate Palestine, where members of his family had lived for five generations. He was a school master and Hebrew teacher in areas that included Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, and Izmir, Turkey. He was also a poet and a scholar of Ladino. In Turkey, he met and married Sara Hakim,^{[citation needed]} returning with her to Jerusalem.

Yehoram enlisted in the IDF in 1957.^{[citation needed]} In the military, he joined the Nahal entertainment troupe, beginning a career in the performing arts that would eventually bring him fame as both a singer and actor.