Yiftach
Katzur
For millions of fans, Yiftach Katzur will always be Benzi — the shy, hopeless romantic whose search for love became the emotional centre of the Lemon Popsicle series.
The Face of a Generation
Few actors became as closely associated with the Lemon Popsicle films as Yiftach Katzur. Through his portrayal of Benzi, he embodied the uncertainty, vulnerability and romantic idealism that defined the series for audiences across Israel and Europe.
Born in 1958, Katzur first gained recognition as a stage actor before becoming one of the most recognisable young performers in Israeli cinema. His breakthrough came with a celebrated performance in Equus, but it was his casting as Benzi in Boaz Davidson's Lemon Popsicle that transformed him into a cultural icon.
Across eight films, Katzur portrayed a character who grew alongside his audience. While the series became famous for its comedy, music and youthful energy, Benzi remained its emotional centre: sensitive, hopeful and perpetually searching for love.
Beyond acting, Katzur later moved into directing, producing, journalism and business, creating one of the more unusual second acts of any performer associated with the franchise. Yet for generations of viewers, he remains inseparable from the character that first made him famous.
Finding Benzi
More than any other character in the Lemon Popsicle series, Benzi gave the films their emotional centre.
When production began on Lemon Popsicle in 1977, director Boaz Davidson was searching for an actor capable of carrying the vulnerability at the heart of the story. While Momo represented confidence and Yudale provided comic relief, Benzi was the dreamer — awkward, sensitive and perpetually searching for love.
Elements of the character were drawn from Davidson's own experiences growing up in Tel Aviv. The role required an actor who could be romantic without becoming sentimental, funny without becoming a caricature, and vulnerable without losing audience sympathy.
Katzur brought a natural sincerity to the role. Audiences believed Benzi's disappointments, heartbreaks and small victories because they felt authentic. While the films became famous for their humour, music and youthful energy, Benzi remained the character viewers connected with most deeply.
Across eight films, Katzur developed the character from an inexperienced teenager into a young adult navigating friendship, military service and the realities of growing up. The result was one of the most enduring performances in Israeli popular cinema.
Beyond the Teen Idol
By the mid-1980s, Yiftach Katzur faced a challenge familiar to many young actors whose identities become tied to a single role.
For almost a decade, audiences had watched him grow up as Benzi. The character's awkwardness, sincerity and romantic idealism had become inseparable from Katzur himself. As the Lemon Popsicle films continued to find audiences across Europe, particularly in Germany where he became known as Jesse Katzur, his public image remained closely linked to the shy dreamer at the centre of the series.
Unlike many performers who actively pursued celebrity, Katzur's interests increasingly extended beyond acting alone. Even during the height of Lemon Popsicle's popularity, he continued to work in theatre, study directing and develop an interest in storytelling from behind the camera. While audiences saw Benzi, Katzur was already beginning to look beyond the role that had made him famous.
This distinction separates him from many of the young stars who emerged during the same period. His education at Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts reflected a commitment not only to performance but also to the craft of filmmaking itself. By the time he graduated in 1984, he had become as interested in how stories were created as in appearing within them.
The transition was gradual. Katzur continued to appear in films outside the Lemon Popsicle series, including Atalia, Soldier of the Night and the American production The Ambassador. Yet his career increasingly moved toward writing, directing and media. Further studies in screenwriting and participation in workshops led by renowned teacher Frank Daniel exposed him to broader approaches to narrative structure and film development.
During the 1990s, he expanded into journalism and broadcasting, working as a film critic, television presenter and newspaper columnist. These roles revealed another side of Katzur: not simply a performer, but an observer and commentator on cinema and culture. It was a path that allowed him to remain connected to the industry while gradually stepping away from the public spotlight.
Perhaps the most unexpected chapter of his story came after acting. While many viewers continued to associate him with Benzi, Katzur successfully reinvented himself in business, media strategy and entrepreneurship. Through a series of ventures in communications, film finance and consultancy, he built a second career that was almost entirely separate from the world of popular cinema.
Yet despite those achievements, public memory continues to return to the character that first made him famous. More than four decades after Lemon Popsicle premiered, Katzur remains the performer most closely associated with the emotional core of the series. While audiences remember Momo's confidence and Yudale's humour, it is often Benzi's vulnerability that endures.
That legacy helps explain why Yiftach Katzur occupies a unique place within Israeli film history. He was not merely a teenage star who happened to appear in a successful franchise. Through Benzi, he gave audiences a character whose hopes, disappointments and insecurities felt recognisably human. Long after the fashions, music and nostalgia of Lemon Popsicle have faded into history, that emotional connection remains.
Selected Works & Credits
A compact archive of Katzur’s screen appearances, theatre work and selected directing or producing credits.