Danielle Yablon, a 25-year-old Israeli who made aliyah from South Florida two years ago, was crowned Miss Israel 2026 in Miami Beach on Wednesday during a ceremony at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.
“Israel has a very special and unique opportunity to present itself to a wider audience,” Yablon told JNS at the ceremony. “Most Americans don’t talk about pageants so much, but for Latin Americans, pageantry is like their version of the Olympics or Eurovision.”
The Miss Universe competition “provides a platform with millions of viewers all over South America, and it’s untapped potential,” she said. “If Israel is not advocating for itself on it, now is our chance.”
Representing Israel is both an honor and a responsibility to the new immigrant to the Jewish state.
“I hope whoever is reading this, and if Israelis are reading this, I hope that they can look at me as an excited newbie that is not washing over all the hardship that Israel goes through, but as someone who’s excited and definitely not as tough as a true Israeli-born Sabra,” she told JNS.
“I’m excited and I’m curious, and I want to learn more,” she said. “I want to do the best that I can to use the platform to showcase other people’s voices, not just my own.”
Competing in a pageant is more demanding than many assume, according to Yablon.
“I think that I am guilty of being a person, who was turned off by the idea of pageantry, but now that I’ve gotten to know the pageantry world and the girls who participate in it and the opportunities that come with it, I see it the same way I see sports,” she said.
“It’s important. It’s about empowering women, and it’s about being comfortable with who you are and learning to be the best woman that you can be in teaching and setting an example for others,” she told JNS.
The event in Miami Beach took place in the museum, which is housed in a historic synagogue, where contemporary works by Miami Jewish artist Sid Daniels overlook exhibits chronicling Jewish life, and antisemitism, in South Florida.
Yablon will represent Israel at the Miss Universe competition in Puerto Rico this November, after the Miss Israel organization selected her in lieu of holding a national pageant this year.
Organization leaders said that title represents more than a beauty pageant, and the competition affords Israel the chance to share its culture with a global audience.
Joseph Shine, president of the Miss Israel, told JNS that he revived the organization two years ago after the previous license holder, the Israeli publication Yedioth Ahronoth, ended its decades-long involvement with the national pageant.
“I couldn’t stand the possibility of our country not being represented in the national arena and an organization, who has all the resources and the power, just gave up on the license,” he told JNS.
“The number one newspaper in the country, which has millions and millions dollars in funding and tradition, just decided to drop the organization,” he said.
Shine, who had no previous experience in the pageant industry, revived the organization with the help of Edgar Saakyan, who oversees the Miss Armenia competition.
The competition is open to women of Israeli or Jewish descent and has eliminated the traditional pageant requirements that contestants be unmarried, childless or meet certain height or appearance standards, according to Shine.
As Miss Israel for 2026, Yablon will represent the Jewish state on the national stage. Shine tells JNS that critics of the pageantry world should know it’s not a mere beauty contest.
“Our judges select a woman, who will represent the country with dignity,” he said. “For me, it’s very important that a person should represent the pluralistic, liberal culture of Israel, reflecting that our country is a democracy with equal rights for women.”
“Miss Israel will be the person who can explain to every person that Israel is not just about politics, or about religion, but that there is a vibrant Jewish culture and that our country is very diverse,” he told JNS.
Not a headline
Shine told JNS that he sees Israel participating in Miss Israel as a unique opportunity to represent the Jewish state on the world stage in a non-political manner which will promote Israeli culture.
“Israel has a very distinguished national character,” he said. “We have unique music and food, and we just ask for Israelis to be treated as human beings by the international community.”
“We are not trying to push a political agenda,” he said. “Israeli society is very divided and everybody has very different opinions about what is going on in Israel, but a Miss Universe contestant represents everyone, regardless of their political views or religious views.”
He added that the “pageantry competition should unite Jews and Israelis around the world, and our message for the world is that as Israelis, we ask to be treated not as a headline but as human beings.”
Yablon told JNS that she worked as a professional model but never expected to one day become Miss Israel.
Her public advocacy for Israel began while studying at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where she encountered antisemitism on campus.
“I attended college there on a scholarship, based on my art and Jewish advocacy, only to have a professor—my Jewish professor, actually—call Israel ‘occupied Palestine,’” she told JNS. “It was a shock for me.”
Yablon began Instagram to advocate for Israel and the Jewish people—a role that eventually led her to make aliyah in a move she didn’t anticipate.
“After Oct. 7, when the war broke out, I just found myself so lost and alone here,” she told JNS. “My modeling jobs dried up. No one wanted to work with me anymore, because I was a Zionist on the internet, and I started looking for any way I could to get back to Israel.”
Due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, the Miss Israel organization did not hold a pageant to select its 2026 representative. Instead, Yablon, who finished as the first runner-up in last year’s competition, was chosen to represent Israel at the 2026 Miss Universe pageant.
“I was really bummed that I lost last year, but no matter how upset I was, I never once thought that the competition was rigged,” she told JNS. “I genuinely thought everything happened the way it was supposed to, because it gave me a whole extra year in Israel to really get to know myself and get to know my country as a citizen living there.”
Yablon sees the title as a platform through which she can serve as a positive role model for Jewish women.
“I always wear my Jewish star wherever I go,” she told JNS. “I always think that no matter where I am, I’m a representation of the Jewish people. A lot of people have said, ‘Oh, I don’t want that weight.’ But I don’t care what anyone says. It’s my responsibility to represent the Jewish people wherever I go.”
“If I’m the first Jew or first Israeli that anyone meets, I want them to have a good impression of who I am and who we are as a people,” she said. “It is my responsibility as Miss Israel, so when I go into this competition, I will lead with kindness. I will smile. I will do what I always do.”
She aims to learn other people’s stories—including where they come from—and to find ways to connect and build relationships.
Participating in pageantry has allowed her to connect with contestants from around the world, including the Arab world, while creating opportunities to challenge stereotypes about Israel and Zionism.
“I have friends now who are from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and all of these Arab countries, who were literally taught to hate Jews, taught that Israel is the devil, and that the Jews are the worst people,” she told JNS. “Then they meet an Israeli for the first time, and they always tell me that they realize everything told to them was a lie.”
“I never want anyone to feel pressure to talk to me,” she said. “I want them to feel comfortable and safe too. I want to just bring light, laughter and be able to find commonalities between me and whoever is willing to speak with me at the competition.”
