Israel Story

Forty years after Carl Sagan’s ‘Golden Records’ began their long voyage into the depths of outer space, Eyal Gever - an Israeli high-tech-wunderkind-turned-conceptual-artist - received an unusual call: NASA asked him to create the first artwork to be printed in space. What, he now had to decide, truly captured the essence of humanity?  Joel Shupack scored and sound-designed the episode, with...

David Ben Shabat hates being called a prophet. As he sees it, he’s just a guy who stumbled upon a deep truth and wants to share it with the people. But, come to think of it, isn’t that precisely the definition of a prophet? Joel Shupack scored and sound-designed the episode, with original music and additional music by Blue Dot Sessions . Sela Waisblum created the mix. The end song, "Migdal Bavel"...

Now that "Alone, Together" is over, and before we turn to stories that - gasp - have little to do with the virus, we revisit and update our most popular episode ever - "Love Syndrome."   On March 22, 2020, as we were all just starting to fathom the new reality we were about to enter, hundreds of Israel Story fans went online to hear an update from an ultra-Orthodox woman from Tzfat. Six...

Stories matter. They have the power of connecting us over time and space. And in the finale of our “Alone, Together” miniseries, we see how a podcast episode turned two strangers - a man from Migdal HaEmek, Israel, and a woman from Porto Alegre, Brazil - into soulmates.   Porto Alegre is a large city in the south of Brazil, a five-hour drive from the border with Uruguay. Five rivers conv...

Israel's one thousandth COVID-19 casualty passed away this weekend. And for all of us, death has sadly been an ever-present part of life over the past six months. In the penultimate episode of our "Alone, Together" series, we bring you two stories about dying in times of Corona.   Over the course of this series, we’ve shared many stories of Israelis dealing - in completely different ways...

Around the world, the tourism industry essentially dried up during the pandemic. But in Israel there was one category of hotels - the so-called “Corona Hotels” - that actually thrived. And depending on whom you ask, they were either a post-apocalyptic heaven or an exit-less hell.  In March 2020, Israel - like many other countries around the world - closed its borders. Since then, according to...

The global pandemic has introduced us to many “lifesavers”—doctors, nurses, and medical staff who are on the frontlines day in and day out. But what happens when those ‘superheroes’ need to be saved themselves? And can saving a life end up saving your life, too? If, God forbid, you find yourself in a medical emergency in Israel, you dial 101 for Magen David Adom. Yet more often than not, before an...

Israel’s ultra-orthodox community was hit twice during COVID-19: First, and in disproportionate numbers, by the virus itself, and then by a wave of anti-Haredi sentiment that pervaded the country. Here’s what it looked like from their perspective. When COVID-19 first hit Israel, many of its epicenters were in Haredi, or Ultra-Orthodox, communities. More than one-third of coronavirus tests in Bnei...

Six months ago, very few people knew what ‘sheltering in place’ or ‘flattening the curve’ meant. Today, we live in a new world, and it’s often hard to remember what it was like at the beginning.  On January 14, 2020 - exactly half a year ago - even Wuhan wasn’t yet under lockdown. There had been but a handful of reported cases outside of China, and for most of us “Corona” was - first and fore...

The wait, ladies and gentlemen, is finally over: Israel Story is back, and is kicking off Season Five with "Alone, Together" - a brand new miniseries about Israel in the time of corona. The global pandemic has—to state the obvious—reshaped our lives, refocused our priorities, and forced us to reevaluate countless things we’ve long taken for granted. Israel was, of course, hit too, in ways that are...

We're extremely excited to announce that Israel Story’s fifth season will begin next week, on June 30, 2020. We’ll kick off with our newest miniseries - "Alone, Together" - which is all about Israel (and Israelis) in the time of corona. Like the rest of the world, Israel experienced curfews and lockdowns, shifting social distancing guidelines, layoffs, economic hardship, illness and death. We've a...

For Mother's Day, we replay one of the most touching and brave stories of motherhood we've ever aired. In 2015, on the very last day of a month-long assignment in Nepal, Israeli journalist Danna Harman ran into three local street girls. She had just finished several unsuccessful rounds of IVF, and – back in Tel Aviv – she began daydreaming of an instant family. When one of the girls contacted...

Today is Yom HaZikaron - the day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. With everyone instructed to stay home, the typically-packed military cemeteries throughout Israel are largely empty. So we wanted to bring you one of our favorite stories. In 2003, Susi Döring Preston was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. That's where she met Tsiki Eyal, at a nightclub. Their passionat...

Join us for a day filled with back-to-back interviews, concerts, workshops and classes in celebration of Israel's Independence Day! Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or Tablet Magazine . Stay connected with us on Facebook , Instagram , and by signing up for our newsletter at israe...

It's Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Over the years we’ve aired many stories and episodes that relate to the Holocaust in different ways. But today we wanted to replay one of our favorites. Lizzie Doron was born in Tel Aviv in the early 1950s. Like many others of her generation, she grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, and her childhood was filled with silence. Questions about her famil...

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What does it mean to be 'in it for the long haul'? In our fiftieth episode, which is also our season finale, we explore this question in the context of both creating a podcast and forging a relationship. Some people operate within the confines of reality. Others don't. Instead, they will things into existence. Today we'll meet one such determined woman who - faced with countless obstacles - d...

Back in 2014, we met Elik Fromchenko. During the day he works at an auto magazine, but - just like Clark Kent - he has a secret superpower: Elik is a world-class whistler. And, in an adventure that could only happen to an Israeli backpacker, he found himself in an ambassadorial role in Hebei Province, China. Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and by signing up for our newslet...

If you happen to associate Christmas Eve with egg rolls, hot-and-sour soup and sesame chicken, tune in to tomorrow's re-release of one of our Season One classics - our sole China-related story. Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or Tablet Magazine . Stay connected with us on Facebo...

Rachael Cerrotti was a college freshman when she first came to Israel on a Birthright trip. Shortly thereafter, back in Philadelphia, she and her grandmother - Hana Dubova - started sitting down for what they called "storytelling sessions." The result was a ten-year-long journey in which Rachael retraced her grandmother's steps during, and in the wake of, WWII. Stay connected with us on Facebook ,...

In our last episode, " Achi " (my brother), we told the tale of two siblings and their unusual life together. And today, we're sharing a little companion bonus track, in which senior producer Yochai Maital talks to his older sister Temira Finesilver about their very different lifestyles.  Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.o...

When God first spoke to Benjamin, he was reading the newspaper. That was just the start of a wild journey that led two Orthodox brothers from the Bronx to a new life, a new homeland, a new lord and - above all - to each other. Growing up, Benjamin and Reuven Berger never imagined they'd be roommates well into their seventies. Nor did they imagine their lives would unfold as brothers in faith. But...

Jews have been in Iraq for more than two-and-a-half millennia. Today, the entire Jewish community of Baghdad can fit in a single car. In this special Thanksgiving bonus, we bring you a conversation between Mishy Harman and Emad Levy, the last "rabbi" of Baghdad. It's a busy week. Many of you will be traveling, and those of you staying put will probably be cooking turkeys and preparing cranberry sa...

A century ago, close to one-third of Baghdad's population was Jewish. Today, just five Jews remain in the city. In today's episode, we explore the story of the Jews of Iraq, all the way from Nahum the prophet to a Jerusalemite grandma who became the unlikely champion of kidnapped Yazidi girls. Jews first arrived in what is today Iraq in the 6th century BC, after the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar...

To most, Adolf Eichmann - the mastermind behind the Nazis’ ‘Final Solution’ - is the ultimate symbol of evil. But to a small group of Israelis, he was no more than a gaunt and balding middle-aged prisoner. This is the story of those who looked evil in the eye, and lived to tell the tale. Last week we aired a story about Dr. Yonah Elian, the anesthesiologist who sedated Eichmann during his capture...