Gila Golan

Gila Golan's career started as an Israeli fashion model, which led to appearances as a film actress. She was apparently born in Krakow, Poland, for she was discovered there in a train station during the German occupation in 1940. She was adopted by a Roman Catholic couple and later sent to a boarding school in France before emigrating to Israel after World War II where she changed her name from Zusia Sobetzcki to Miriam Goldberg. She became interested in fashion and her being spotted by an American photographer led to appearing in the Israeli magazine La'isha. It was a natural step for her to extend her fashion activities into the 1960 competition which led to her being crowned "Na'arat Israel" - Israel's Maiden of Beauty (IMB) - or using international usage, "Miss Israel." For this competition she changed her name to Gila Golan. Such a change of names to one more typically Israeli was common at the time, but she may have done this to prevent any embarrassment to her religiously conser