Israel Story

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 Shmuluvitz introduces us to Tali Griffel, a thirty-six-year-old physical therapist from Jerusalem who has been searching for a stable maternal bond her entire life, ever since she lost not one, but two, mothers.In Act II, “The Radio Babe,” we tell the tale of a couple who won’t be able to hear their own story. Eli and Mira Kosover, both deaf, somehow managed to raise a radio producer, our very own Maya Kosover. Through conversations with her parents and her brother (who is hearing, like her), Maya brings us into the noisy world of her deaf upbringing. A transcript of the episode is available at israelstory.org.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 behemoth and modern day Tower of Babel — which mirrors much of modern Israeli history, with its grand vision and messy implementation.Act II, “The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God,” is adapted from Etgar Keret’s short story collection of the same name, and performed by Keret himself. In it, we meet—yes—a bus driver whose deeply held belief in equity and fairness flies right smack in the face of Eddie, an assistant cook who has a problem getting places on time.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of Israel, and then travel all around the world, to London and New York, even to Beijing.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Israel. Danna Harman shares their story in Act I, “Like A Stone.”Act II, “There’s a Wall Between Us,” began as a radio piece called “Checkpoints and Secrets,” by Daniel Estrin, which aired in last year’s Valentine’s Day special. Daniel’s piece followed the winding love affair of two men, an Israeli Jew from Jerusalem and a Palestinian Muslim from the West Bank, as it unfolded over a long time. We then gave Daniel’s original recordings, so the actual words the two men had told him, over to composer Or Matias — the Musical Director of the electro-pop opera “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” which will go up on Broadway this coming fall. Or, in turn, adapted the piece into a mini-musical, with entirely original music, performed here by Alaa Daka and Eyal Sherf, with Mike Cohen on flute, Dillon Condor on guitar and mandolin, and Dan Weiner on percussion.Our final story, “When Time Will Fold Over,” takes place in a tiny village, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, called Mevo Modi’im. The 254 people who live there look like a cross between the Lubavitch Rebbe and Jerry Garcia. This is the story of two of them, Michael and Leah Golomb, and their 37-year marriage. It is an updated version of a piece that we aired exactly a year ago, and is produced by Benny Becker and Yochai Maital, with original music by Collin Oldham.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 aristocracy, was there to witness this exercise in diplomacy. She was not impressed. Today, these elder stateswomen are dear friends. From Malta, where they most recently met up, they share the story of how they won each other over in “R&R,” Act I of this week’s episode. Anthony David told the story of these two grand ladies in his recent book, “An Improbable Friendship.”Act II, “The Center for Rationality,” introduces us to economist Eytan Sheshinski and mathematician Yisrael Aumann, both of them at the top of their fields who, nevertheless, seem to leave clear thinking behind when it comes to their favorite pastime: hiking together.In Act III, journalist Danna Harman brings us “Girls’ Night In” – the story of two women in their forties who have been acquaintances, but by no means friends, since childhood in Ramat HaSharon. It was a pair of tragedies that drew them close.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Israelis (or at least the vast majority of them) don’t do is pick those flowers. That restraint does not stem from any particular zeal for following the law that forbids such picking. Rather, it is the product of a fantastically successful public service campaign that began back in the early 1960s. Daniel Estrin brings us that story in “Act I: Flower Power.”In Act II, we switch gears, locales, and just about everything else to follow the journey of Nathan Ehrlich, a Brooklyn-based reporter. For the past few years, Nathan has sought the help of Peruvian shamans (including one kindred spirit, Sergey, who came to Peru from Ukraine by way of Israel), whose work with ayahuasca, huachuma, and other sacred plants has helped him break through emotional and physical barriers. His story is “Where the Wild Things Grow.”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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the year’s heaviest week of travel, Israel Story brings tales of love and interrogation at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion AirportThe 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, with fear or wariness, en route to someplace else?In this week’s episode of Israel Story, we hear from people who have had unforgettable encounters in or on their way to TLV. First, we meet Lily Sayegh, an Iraqi-born Israeli in her 80s who had a very unusual seatmate on a flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. Next, we hear from a couple whose romantic fate was sealed by an Israeli security officer. And finally, we meet Victor Rodack who, in 1967, at age 14, was perhaps El Al’s very first stowaway.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Herzl was the father of modern Zionism, and there are 54 streets named after him in Israel—more than any other national figure. And 48 comes from 1948, the year the country was founded.For this episode, which was commissioned by the Manhattan JCC and has been performed before live audiences across the U.S. and Israel, Israel Story producers crisscrossed the small country, knocking on doors at every Herzl 48 they could reach and collecting stories from whomever they encountered. Today’s episode, culled from the live show, features seven different characters, including a butcher in Akko, a stoner in Tel Aviv, and a young couple whose very dramatic tale is told in song.For information on future live tours, go to israelstory.org/en/tours.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 related to you, it may take the two of you, plus a Ukrainian egg donor, an Indian woman to serve as the surrogate, and a Nepali safe house to shelter the surrogate, who is not allowed to perform this service in her home country. Sound complicated? It is. It’s also very, very expensive and raises sticky questions about the complex relationship between a paid surrogate and the people who hire her services.In this very special episode of Israel Story, producers Yochai Maital and Maya Kosover team up with Radiolab’s Molly Webster, Jad Abumrad, and Robert Krulwich, and reporters Nilanjana Bhowmick in India and Bhrikuti Rai in Nepal, to tell the story of Tal and Amir. The two are an Israeli couple who went to Nepal to pick up their three babies from two surrogates and then discovered that the transaction is not as straightforward as they’d believed. The journey is further complicated by the terrible earthquake that struck Nepal during the weeks that Tal and Amir were living there, learning to care for their infants. Here’s how it all went down.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 a woman, they became more religious, and moved to Israel. Jeff became Yaacov, a Chabad Rabbi, and also the father of six children. A few years later, Yaacov’s identity began to unravel, presenting a terrible dilemma: 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?This is Yiscah’s story, as told to reporter Molly Livingstone.Produced by Benny Becker with help from Raoul Wootliff and Rachel Fischer, and music help from Shoshi Shmuluvitz. Music for this episode comes from Blue Dot Sessions, Dana Boulé, and Ben Sound.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 israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.