Israel Story

From secret bathroom texting all the way to negotiating a divorce in Venice (of all places...), we bring you heart-wrenching tales of lost faith. In 1991, REM’s Michael Stipe famously sang, “That’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion, trying to keep up with you, and I don’t know if I can do it.” Just over a quarter-century later, we set out to explore what happens when religious couples no lon...

Lizzie Doron always felt there was an invisible ghost in her life. She wasn't wrong. Early next week we will mark Yom HaShoah , Holocaust Remembrance Day. There are just about 160,000 Holocaust survivors still living in Israel, but they are rapidly vanishing. More than forty survivors die each day. And that means that the memory of the Holocaust, and the stories we tell and hear about the Holocaus...

Our season opener takes us right to the end... An episode full of surprising stories that explore how we die, and what comes next. It’s springtime in Israel and renewal is in the air: Wildflowers are blooming, short pants make their first appearances of the year, and – most importantly – we are back with the start of our third season. But of course, it wouldn’t be Israel Story if there wasn’t a tw...

In the second installment of this two-part series (and our season two finale), we pick up where we left off last week: Presenting small stories – one per decade – that took place on Israel’s Independence Day, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, and that, in some way, reflect their era. Part I , took us from 1948 to 1978. In today’s episode, which begins in 1988 and brings us all the way to the present, we encounter a...

This is the first in a two-part series that takes us through Israel’s short but dramatic history. Over the last few months, we’ve spent many hours, in all kinds of archives, learning all we could about Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. The result is a mosaic of stories that took place on Yom Ha’Atzmaut itself, in ten year intervals, and that in some way reflect their era. Part I will take...

This Thursday, May 5th, Israelis observe Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. At 10 a.m., according to custom, an air raid will sound and the country will fall quiet for two long minutes. Silence won’t do for a podcast, so instead we bring you two stories. Act I, “B-1367,” is about an elderly father and his 53-year old son, and the inked number that binds them. In Act II, “Herr Eichmann...

On Today’s show, we delve into the messy territory of family bonds—how they’re formed, challenged, and change over time. We’ll meet three families who are all, at the end of the day, happy, but are not (contrary to Tolstoy’s claim) in any way alike. First we hear from Mishy’s family—Dorothy, David, Danna and Oren—who like to talk to each other. A lot. In Act I, “The Missing Moms,” producer Shoshi...

Israeli buses regularly make international headlines, be it for suicide bombings, fights over gender segregation or clashes concerning Shabbat schedules. On today’s episode of Israel Story, we delve into the world of lesser known bus-related conflicts. In Act I, “The White Elephant,” Yochai Maital walks us through the history of Tel Aviv’s ‘New’ Central Bus Station — a derelict eight-story behemot...

In the last episode of Israel Story, we met couples in love. But for every story of love found, there are, of course, piles and piles of broken hearts. So today on our show, “Over and Out.” We’ve got three stories of relationships that have ended, and the things (the often slightly nutty things) that people do once they no longer see eye to eye. We’ll journey back to the early dates of the State o...

Three couples look back at their time together—on a kibbutz, in verse, and in a hospital. The stories in today’s episode come from our most recent live show, “Israel in Love.” We’ll meet three couples looking back at their love affairs from very different vantage points. Zvi and Regina Steinitz’s romance has been going on the longest—in fact, it’s been going on since the very birth of the state of...

How Moshe Dayan’s wife and Yasser Arafat’s mother-in-law became bosom buddies, and other tales of unlikely friendships. When Raymonda Tawil met Ruth Dayan in 1970, they seemed well-primed to be enemies. Ruth, the then wife of Israeli war hero and Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, was visiting a hospital in the Palestinian city of Nablus to deliver dolls to children. Tawil, of Palestinian aristocrac...

How we change nature and nature changes us, from wildflower picking in Israel to ayahuasca retreats in Peru. There have already been a few sightings of anemones in Israel, and that means it’s the start of wildflower season. Many Israelis track wildflowers with a passion. There are traffic jams near popular flower-carpeted hills and even websites that tell you what’s popped up where. But what Israe...

For the year’s heaviest week of travel, Israel Story brings tales of love and interrogation at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport The first place travelers to Israel encounter is usually Ben Gurion Airport. What they’ll remember of that experience depends in part on their relationship to the country. Are they coming home? Arriving to a place they’ve always dreamed of visiting? Passing through, wit...

Israel Story producers crisscrossed the small country, visiting every 48 Herzl Street and collecting stories from whomever they encountered. There is nothing inherently special about the people who live at 48 Herzl Street, an address that shows up in big cities, small outposts, and everything in between throughout Israel. But symbolically, it’s about as freighted an address as they come. Theodore...

In this very special episode, Israel Story teams up with Radiolab to tell the story of Tal and Amir-- an Israeli couple who went to Nepal to pick up their three babies from two surrogates and then discovered that the transaction is not so straightforward. How many people does it take to start a family? Well, if you are a gay Israeli couple, both men, and you’d like your children to be biologically...

What do you do when you realize that in order to be true to yourself, you have to shatter everything around you, including the lives of those you love most? Yiscah Smith lives in Nahlaot, in Jerusalem. But her journey to this Orthodox-meets-hipster neighborhood took her through what seems like four lifetimes. She was born in Long Island, as Jeff Smith, to a Conservative Jewish family. Jeff married...

Rabin is a symbol. An icon. But in Israel of 2015, twenty years later, it isn't so simple to understand what he really stands for anymore. Who is Yitzhak Rabin today, twenty years after his murder? In this episode, we discover that for many Israelis, he represents completely different – and often conflicting – things: Rachel Rabin remembers her older brother as a shy kid, who forced her to be the...

Two journeys - in very different directions, and taken for very different reasons - out of, and then into, Africa. Israel is embroiled in Middle Eastern geopolitics. That, at least, everyone knows. We also aspire to be part of Europe, and never miss a chance to reiterate our “special relationship” with the US. But what about Africa, our next door neighbors? Our history stretches all the way back t...

A look back and a peek ahead. Starting October 21st, we’ll be releasing a new episode of Israel Story every two weeks. A new reason to love Wednesdays! For more, head to our site . Stay connected with us on Facebook , Instagram , and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...

Tales of love, romance, and the pursuit thereof. Valentine’s Day is not native to Israel, but the country does not lack for tales of love, romance, and the pursuit thereof. In this, our sixth episode, we bring you stories of love and all the ways it’s got to do, got to do with it. Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.org/...

An episode all about sacred bovines! The stories of four featured moo-ers: a red heifer that some think will bring the messiah, a cow that’s become the symbol of radical Israeli veganism, buffalos that hold the future for a self-described “Israeli redneck,” and the golden calf that was biblical big-business. Cowabunga! Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitter , In...

The stories of three Israelis who are not religious but have pursued unusual hobbies with missionary zeal. In this, our fourth episode, we introduce three Israelis who are not religious but have pursued unusual hobbies with missionary zeal. One is a hitman-for-hire, another collects a highly specific classification of autographs, and the third is a professional whistler. This has earned them, vari...

Three stories revolving around people who rescue books, chase after books, or otherwise allow books to determine their destiny. Are Jews still “the people of the book”? Are Israelis? What does that even mean today? In the third episode of Israel Story, we’ve got three stories that all revolve around people who rescue books, chase after books, or otherwise allow books to determine their destin...

Chaya Ben Baruch grew up as Enid, in a Conservadox Jewish family in Far Rockaway, NY. Midway through college, she left that world behind to study sea otters in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fast-forward a decade: Enid is now married to a nice Catholic salmon fisher named Stan. She’s just given birth to her sixth child, and discovers he has Down syndrome. Many parents in her position would be devastated....

From our relationship with Ira Glass to priceless antiquities all the way to coveted sick passes – Israeli stories that are anything but real. In our very first episode, the Israel Story team delves into the realm of fakes, forgeries, and mimicry. Three stories, from different periods and places, of people pretending to to be something they are not. Stay connected with us on Facebook , Twitte...