Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Israelicious

Bar Refaeli made history this month, becoming the first Israeli model to be featured in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Born in Hod HaSharon, the 21-year-old beauty started doing commercials in Israel when she was eight months old. At 10, she wanted to be a skydiver; then she gave up modeling for the three years that she had braces. Lucky for S.I. readers, though, at 15 she jumped back into the game and has been climbing the pinup ladder ever since

In an interview with the magazine, Refaeli said that the Hebrew song “My Friend” about the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin makes her cry, and revealed that what attracts her to a man is “a sense of humor, kindness, the way he laughs.” (Don’t get your hopes up: She’s been dating actor Leonardo DiCaprio for months.) Refaeli said she was very proud of her groundbreaking fashion feat.

“It’s always a huge honor to be the first to do something,” she told the magazine. “People always remember the first person to do something.”

Especially if all she’s wearing is a little shmatte.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version