Zvi Spielmann

Zvi, Mooly’s father, was born in Poland. In 1925, at the age of 8, he immigrated to what was then Mandatory Palestine. He received his professional training as a biology teacher, but after marrying Miriam Rosner—the daughter of Margot Klausner, founder of Herzliya Studios—he joined the studio’s management in 1952. Under his leadership, "Studio 1" was established and operated; it remains Herzliya Studios’ largest and central studio to this day. In 1961, he managed the filming of the Eichmann trial.

In 1965, Zvi left the family business and founded the production company Israphilms, which specialized in providing production services for international films. He ran the company together with Alex Massis, who left in the early 1970s. Later, Shlomo Mograbi joined as a partner but also left in the 1990s. The company produced many co-productions, including: A Woman Called Golda starring Ingrid Bergman, Sword of Gideon, Remembrance of Love with Kirk Douglas, and the Israel-based segments of Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, among many others.

Israphilms also produced numerous Israeli films, among them: One of Us (winner of the Israeli Academy Award), The Guest for the Dead Season by Moshé Mizrahi, A Thousand Little Kisses by Mira Recanati, Salsa Tel Aviv by Yohanan Weller, and more.

In 2000, the Israeli Academy of Film and Television awarded producer Zvi Spielmann a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Zvi passed away in May 2013 and was buried next to his wife Miriam at Kibbutz Horshim.