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About
Israel is often known through headlines steeped in strife. But the core realities of everyday life can be very different. In Israeli Voices: Who We Are, an eight-episode podcast, CITIZENARTS presents observations and heartfelt conversations with a wide spectrum of Israelis. These are not formal interviews but unvarnished moments – in homes, classrooms, on city streets, in businesses and in communities shaped by cultures rooted in history, myth, calamity – triumph.
As the series unfolds, common perspectives emerge — from people with widely varied backgrounds: Jewish and Palestinian citizens, native-born and immigrants from European and Muslim countries, the secular and the deeply religious.
What comes into focus is the humanity of a diverse, complicated, in some ways deeply divided society that is little or largely misunderstood by the world outside. Their voices blend into a truthful rendering of who Israelis are.
In the final episode, some of them come together in a forum to share opinions about their country — and to debate and ponder what comes next for Israel and its place in the Middle East and the world.
This podcast is available at Apple Podcasts, any of the platforms listed above, or wherever you get your shows. For your convenience, you can also listen to Israeli Voices: Who We Are, by clicking the episode links below. For more information, contact jeff.lewis@citizenartscreative.org
Listen to Israeli Voices: Who We Are
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Trailer
Jill Gabbe, co-founder and executive producer of CITIZENARTS, introduces Israeli Voices: Who We Are, an eight-episode podcast of on-the-ground conversations across a spectrum of Israeli life. Perspectives emerge shaped by personal identity, history, and experience — revealing the humanity of a people striving to live freely with dignity and mutual respect in peace.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode One
In the Negev, a few kilometers from Israel’s border with Gaza, many come to reflect, remember, mourn at memorials on Blood Road and at the Nova Music Festival. There and at kibbutzim nearby on October 7, 2023, Hamas military forces and Gazan militants began attacks that killed 1200 Israelis.
In two of the attacked kibbutzim, Eyal, Nevo and their wives and children sheltered in their homes, the sounds of battle and massacre around them. They were rescued and evacuated by the Israeli Army. Settled in another community, Nevo and his wife remain uncertain they will return to their restored kibbutz. Eyal travels to his kibbutz from his temporary home to work and walk within sites and memories of the attack and the murdered. He and his wife and children await the day they’ll live there again and maybe, eventually, walk in peace from their home to the Gaza Strip and across to the Mediterranean Sea.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Two
Families picnicking, playing, munching cookies and quiche at an outdoor café in the Judean hills. Carefree, joyful expressions in Hebrew and English. A seeming impossible scenario – especially for foreigners who think of Israel as mostly tempests. Looking closer, one notices the dads wearing holstered pistols frolicking with kids. Reminders of ever-present danger.
A few miles away, a serene community built around a vineyard. A lunch celebrating the end of Shabbat hosted by Nissim, an entrepreneur who discourses about Israel as a meritocracy of opportunity regardless of race or background. Where capitalism flourishes in a socialist system. But also where taxes and other mounting costs of daily life are magnified by war and costs of social welfare for the Haredim – Israel’s fast-growing ultra-orthodox Jewish community. And where parents worry and are challenged about guiding children through social media distractions and looming, life-altering commitments to military service.
Further along, Tel Aviv’s economic prowess, Mediterranean beachy, café vibe, incoming missile terrors, Hostage Square remembrance of the damaged and lost. And Noa, a groundbreaking, politically correct journalist, sharing family stories of racial inequity and of feminist influences on Israeli journalism, police brutality, gender harmony.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Three
Considering the roots of the provocative slogan “From the River to the Sea” – and sensitivities about how Jews and Palestinians in Israel identify themselves and each other.
A small town famed for the first Aliyah – the first arrival of Jews in Palestine from Eastern Europe. And in a tree-shaded corner of the local cemetery a chilling interlude where early Jewish settlers rest beside Israeli soldiers killed in battles past and present.
Mount Carmel – where the Prophet Elijah brought fire on pagan worshipers, and Technion – Israel’s MIT – drives Israel’s technology chutzpah, and there are panoramic views of the Mediterranean port city of Haifa, noted for relatively harmonious coexistence of Jews and Palestinians.
At the Technion, a tech student dreams of his role in Israel’s self-proclaimed “start-up nation.”
In Haifa, Rasool – lawyer, grassroots activist – considers what it means to be Palestinian in a Jewish state in conflict with Muslims. How Palestinians and Jews can move past historic enmities, stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination to build meaningful connections.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Four
A tunnel from Jerusalem to an armed checkpoint. Waved through to the West Bank - one of the most disputed, precarious, complicated places on earth.
Palestinian apartment towers rising up a hillside. Israeli homes on another. Separate communities. Shared roads. Separate schools. Checkpoints everywhere. Separate identities. Separate stories. Competing claims to the land. Conflicting takes and guidance from age-old histories, beliefs, legends.
In the near distance, Ramallah -- headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. Up close, a peaceful, flower-blooming hilltop community overlooking the Judean Desert.
Lavi -- husband, father, army reservist, settler -- reflects on life in the West Bank. Rejecting the label occupiers. Renouncing violence of extremist Jews and corrupt leaders and terrorists among Palestinians. Yearning for a day when parents do not worry about children going to war.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Five
A neighborhood clinic delivering universal health care.
Shlomit - mother, poet and educator on her flowered Jerusalem balcony. Telling of forebears fighting British colonialists for independence; reflecting on raising children where air raid sirens interrupt serenity in streets echoing hallowed history and a daughter’s bedroom is built to withstand missiles. Duty, honor, country, she affirms -- for most Israelis, not for Haredim -- Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews. Recounting challenges of repeated calls to military service and young people comprehending tragedies of war, grieving for its victims.
A massive demonstration by Haredim against serving in the Israel Defense Forces.
On the Mount of Olives, the oldest Jewish burial ground, sacred Christian roots. Below, in the Old City, cauldron of residents, retailers, tourists, pilgrims. Holiest of sites for Christians, Muslims, Jews. Cobble streets holding memories of King David, Christ, Mohammed.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Six
An educator waits outside the Knesset -- Israel’s parliament -- for ultra-Orthodox students learning civics as preparation for life-altering military service and participation in Israel’s workaday and political world -- facing ostracism and rejection from families and communities.
In the West Bank, Rabbi Bombach -- ultra-Orthodox rabbi, army reservist, entrepreneurial educator -- speaks of his life’s work -- educating fellow Haredim to become part of and succeed in dynamic, competitive, patriotic Israel while preserving centuries-old religious, social, cultural traditions.
Young Israeli soldiers on patrol, hiking out of a Judean valley where Benjamin and other Biblical figures drew water, recounting duty in the West Bank, Lebanon, Gaza, elsewhere -- honoring military service, questioning harsh judgments of their nation from the world.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Seven
A teachers’ college in Jerusalem, classrooms of Jewish and Palestinian students.
Julia, American-born teacher, advocate for learning that engenders harmony across cultures -- reflects on plusses and minuses of Israeli education, impending military service for her children.
Palestinian students discuss AI for learning -- not dumbing down -- social media distractions and how the English language connects people from different cultures and backgrounds and with the world. Wishing for mutual respect and an end to hate.
At Yad Vashem, Israel bears witness to restoring identities and memories of those who vanished in the Holocaust.
At the National Cemetery, soldiers study Israel's founding fathers and mothers and hear the voices of comrades who gave their last full measure of devotion for the independence and freedom of their country.
Israeli Voices: Who We Are - Episode Eight
Voices heard throughout our series come together to discuss, debate matters at the heart of Israel's past, present, and future.
Voices from kibbutzim terrorized on October 7, from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, the West Bank. Religious and secular. Native-born and immigrant. Exploring Israel’s war for independence. What it means to be a Jewish state when over 20 percent of the population isn’t Jewish. The gifts and blemishes of Zionism. The potential for full equality between Jews and Palestinians. The prospects for peace among peoples often living in misunderstanding, stress, conflict. Sharing hopes for their families and country.
As Jerusalem settles into Shabbat, reflections on questions raised, debated throughout Israeli Voices: Who We Are. Captured in the words of a hospital nurse that go to the heart of the wonder, tragedy, glory that is Israel.
Israeli Voices
Credits
Jim Gabbe - Founder and director
Jill S. Gabbe - Executive producer
Jeff Lewis - Producer and artistic director
Hilik Wald - Israel field producer
Israeli Voices: What We Are is courtesy of gabbegroup Productions. All rights are reserved. CITIZENARTS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.