Culture of Israel
Encyclopedia
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
arrived with diverse cultural backgrounds and contributed to the development of Israeli culture, which follows cultural trends and changes across the globe. Israeli culture also reflects Jewish history
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Since Jewish history is over 4000 years long and includes hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes...
in the diaspora, especially the ideology of the Zionist movement beginning in the late nineteenth century.
Israeli traditions are rooted in a synthesis of ethnic and religious Hebrew Israelite traditions, and Israeli artists continually push the boundaries of their art forms. Through their work, Israel's artists provoke self-reflective and communal examination and inspire social change, while expressing the beauty of the people and the land of Israel.
Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
is partly based on religious tradition. It links the Jewish people to the Land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
where the concept of Jewish nationhood first evolved between 1200 BCE and 70 CE (end of the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
era). However, modern Zionism evolved as mainly secular. It mostly began as a response to the widespread antisemitism toward European Judaism. It constituted a branch of the broader phenomenon of modern nationalism. Though Zionist groups were first competing with other Jewish political movements, Zionism became an equivalent to political Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
during and after the Holocaust.
Overview
Israeli culture is heterogeneous and dynamic. With a diverse population of immigrants from five continents and more than 100 countries, and significant subcultures like the Palestinians, the Russians, and the Orthodox, each with its own newspapers and cultural networks, Israeli culture is extremely varied. Tel AvivTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
is considered the hub of secular culture, although many leading cultural institutions are located in Jerusalem. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
plays at venues throughout the country and abroad. The Israel Broadcasting Authority
Israel Broadcasting Authority
Israel Broadcasting Authority is Israel's state broadcasting network.It grew out of the radio station Kol Yisrael, which made its first broadcast as an independent station on . The name of the organisation operating Kol Yisrael was changed to Israel Broadcasting Service in 1951...
has a symphony orchestra that performs in Israel and around the world, and almost every city has its own orchestras, many of the musicians hailing from the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Israeli dance companies, among them the Batsheva
Batsheva Dance Company
The Batsheva Dance Company is an internationally acclaimed dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964....
and Bat Dor, are highly acclaimed in the dance world. Theater is also an important facet of the culture of Israel. The national theater, Habima was established in 1917. Other theater companies include the Cameri Theater
Cameri Theater
The Cameri Theater , established in 1944 in Tel Aviv, is one of the leading theaters in Israel, and is housed at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center....
, Beit Lessin Theater
Beit Lessin Theater
Beit Lessin Theater is a theater in Tel Aviv, Israel.Established in 1978 by Yaakov Agmon for the Histadrut, the theater resided in Lessin House until moving to the old residence of the Cameri Theater in 2003....
, Gesher Theater
Gesher Theater
Gesher Theater is an Israeli theater company founded in 1991 by new immigrants from Russia.-History:Gesher Theatre was founded in Israel in 1991 with the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Jewish Agency, the City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, The Tel Aviv Development Foundation and the...
(which performs in Hebrew and Russian), Haifa Theater and Beersheba Theater.
Safed
Safed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
, Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
and Ein Hod
Ein Hod
Ein Hod is a communal settlement in northern Israel. Located south of Mount Carmel and southeast of Haifa in northern Israel, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council. In 2008 it had a population of 559....
are home to artist colonies. Major art museums operate in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...
and Jerusalem, as well as in many towns and kibbutzim. Jerusalem's Israel Museum
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
has a special pavilion showcasing the Dead Sea scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
and a large collection of Jewish religious art, Israeli art, sculptures and Old Masters paintings. Newspapers appear in dozens of languages, and every city and town publishes a local newsletter.
Hebrew language
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda was a Jewish lexicographer and newspaper editor. He was the driving spirit behind the revival of the Hebrew language in the modern era.-Biography:...
, who founded the Hebrew Language Committee, coined thousands of new words and concepts based on Biblical, Talmudic and other sources, to cope with the needs and demands of life in the 20th century. Learning Hebrew became a national goal, employing the slogan "Yehudi, daber ivrit" ("Jew - speak Hebrew"). Special schools for Hebrew language learning, ulpan
Ulpan
An ulpan is an institute or school for the intensive study of Hebrew. Ulpan is a Hebrew word meaning basically studio or teaching, instruction....
im, were set up all over the country.
Cultural influences
The development of Israeli culture was very much influenced by aliyahAliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
or immigration waves and by Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in the Holy Land. The Jewish pioneers who came to the Holy Land hailed from many countries and brought with them the cultures of their lands. Russian culture
Russian culture
Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes, specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture...
had an undeniable impact on the arts in Israel. Habima Theatre brought its Russian and Yiddish roots to the country. Local Arab culture had an influence on dance, language and mannerisms. British culture was introduced during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. German culture left its mark on the architecture of Israel
Architecture of Israel
The architecture of Israel is composed of many different styles of building brought in by those who have occupied the country over the ages, sometimes modified to suit the local climate and landscape...
, with many buildings in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and other cities inspired by the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
movement.
Especially celebrated are works from the 1950s and the 1960s when art in modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
was created, in contrast to the poetry written previously, like that of Nathan Alterman
Nathan Alterman
Nathan Alterman was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator who – though never holding any elected office – was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel.-Biography:...
, Avraham Shlonsky
Avraham Shlonsky
Avraham Shlonsky was a significant and dynamic Israeli poet and editor born in Russian Empire.He was influential in the development of modern Hebrew and its literature in Israel through his many acclaimed translations of literary classics, particularly from Russian, as well as his own original...
, and Leah Goldberg
Leah Goldberg
Leah Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew poet, author, playwright, literary translator, and comparative literary researcher. Her writings are considered classics of Israeli literature and remain very popular among Hebrew speaking Israelis.-Biography:...
, or the literary style of one of the greatest Hebrew authors, S. Y. Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon , was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon . In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.Agnon was born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire...
. The central figures of the modern poetry of the first decades were Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet. Amichai is considered by many, both in Israel and internationally, as Israel's greatest modern poet. He was also one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew....
, Nathan Zach
Nathan Zach
Nathan Zach is an Israeli poet.-Biography:Born in Berlin, Germany, to a German father and an Italian mother, Zach immigrated to what was then known as Palestine in 1936 and served in the IDF during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War....
and David Avidan
David Avidan
David Avidan was an Israeli "poet, painter, filmmaker, publicist, and playwright" . He wrote 20 published books of Hebrew poetry.-Biography and literary career:...
. In the field of literature, most notable were Moshe Shamir
Moshe Shamir
Moshe Shamir was an Israeli author, playwright, opinion writer, and public figure.-Biography:...
and Aharon Megged
Aharon Megged
Aharon Megged is an Israeli author and playwright.-Biography:Aharon Megged was born in 1920 in Włocławek, Poland, and in 1926 immigrated with his parents to Mandate Palestine. He grew up in Ra'anana, attending the Herzliya high school in Tel Aviv...
along with Amos Oz
Amos Oz
Amos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....
, A. B. Yehoshua
A. B. Yehoshua
Abraham B. Yehoshua is an Israeli novelist, essayist, and playwright. His pen name is A. B. Yehoshua.-Biography:...
, Meir Shalev
Meir Shalev
Meir Shalev is an Israeli writer. He is the son of the Jerusalemite poet Yitzchak Shalev. His cousin Zeruya Shalev is also a writer.- Biography :...
, and many more.
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. In music, in spite of the continuance of the French effect they began to weaken. Instead, a wide variety of effects, such as British popular music (and in particular The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
), Greek music, and a more updated Russian culture influenced Israeli culture.
The culture of the Jewish refugees from the Arab states
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
has had a considerable impact on music and film. The comedy troupe HaGashash HaHiver
HaGashash HaHiver
HaGashash HaHiver |Tracker]]) were an Israeli comedy group. Often called HaGashashim , they are considered a classic of Israeli entertainment and the most influential comedy act in the history of Israel.The three members of the Gashash were:...
and bourekas films offered a satiric look at Mizrahi mannerisms and perceived predominance of Ashkenazi culture. In popular music, the main influences were from Britain, Europe, and South America; in addition to those, Turkish, Greek, and Arab music gradually became more important. Since the inauguration of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i commercial
Commercial broadcasting
Commercial broadcasting is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship...
television, high-quality local drama developed, adding another dimension to Israel Television, which had previously relied on imported series from England and the United States.
Melting pot approach
The first Israeli prime minister, David Ben Gurion, led a trend to blend the many immigrants who arrived at the first years of the state from Europe, North Africa, and Asia into one melting pot that will not differentiate between the older residents of the country and the new immigrants. The original purpose was to unite the immigrants with the veteran Israelis for the creation of a common Israeli culture in order to build a new nation in the new country.The two central tools that were destined for this effect were the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
and the education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
system. Israel Defense Forces—by the means of its transformation to the army of the nation which would constitute a common ground between all civilians of the country wherever they are. The education system—firstly in the method of unitary education, following the cancellation of the method of the currents in education and uniting the education system under the education laws, in order that different students from different sectors would study together at the same schools. In a gradual process the Israeli society became more pluralistic and the melting pot declined with the years.
Some critics of the melting pot consider it to have been a necessity in the first years of the state in order to build a mutual society, but now claim that there is no longer a need for it. They instead see a need for Israeli society to enable the people to express the differences and the exclusiveness of every stream and sector. Others, mainly Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
and Holocaust survivors
Sh'erit ha-Pletah
Sh'erit ha-Pletah is a biblical term used by Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust to refer to themselves and the communities they formed following their liberation in the spring of 1945....
from Europe, criticized the early melting pot process. According to them, they were forced to give up or conceal their original heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, which they brought from their homelands, and to adopt a new "Sabra
Sabra (person)
Sabra is a term used to describe a Jew born in Israeli territory; the term is also usually inclusive of Jews born during the period of the establishment of the state of Israel. The word "sabra" is Arabic and Hebrew. Immigrants to Palestine began using it in the early 1930s, according to the The...
" culture. This has been articulated by the Anglo-Jewish writer Emanuel Litvinoff
Emanuel Litvinoff
Emanuel Litvinoff was a British writer and human rights campaigner, and a well known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature.-Background:...
who lamented the denigration of the Yiddish language and objected to a Zionist 'chauvinism.'
Literature
Brenner, torn between hope and despair, struggled with the reality of the Zionist enterprise in the Land of Israel. Agnon, Brenner's contemporary, fused his knowledge of Jewish heritage with the influence of 19th and early 20th century European literature. He produced fiction dealing with the disintegration of traditional ways of life, loss of faith and the subsequent loss of identity. In 1966, Agnon was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Native-born writers who published their work in the 1940s and 1950s, often called the "War of Independence generation," brought a sabra mentality and culture to their writing. S. Yizhar, Moshe Shamir, Hanoch Bartov and Benjamin Tammuz vacillated between individualism and commitment to society and state. In the early 1960s, A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, and Yaakov Shabtai broke away from ideologies to focus on the world of the individual, experimenting with narrative forms and writing styles such as psychological realism, allegory and symbolism. Since the 1980s and early 1990s, Hebrew literature has been widely translated and several Israeli writers have achieved ohya international recognition.
Visual arts
From the beginning of the 20th century, visual arts in Israel have shown a creative orientation influenced by the encounter between East and West, as well as by the land itself and its development, the character of the cities, and stylistic trends emanating from art centers abroad. In painting, sculpture, photography, and other art forms, the country's varied landscape is the protagonist: the hill terraces and ridges produce special dynamics of line and shape; the foothills of the Negev, the prevailing grayish-green vegetation and the clear luminous light result in distinctive color effects; and the sea and sand affect surfaces. On the whole, local landscapes, concerns, and politics lie at the center of Israeli art and ensure its uniqueness.The earliest Israeli art movement was the Bezalel school
Bezalel school
The Bezalel school was an art movement in Palestine in the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. Named for the Bezalel Art School, predecessor of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, it has been described as "a fusion of 'oriental' art and Jugendstil."...
of the Ottoman and early Mandate period in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist subjects in a style influenced by the European jugendstil (or art nouveau) movement, symbolism, and traditional Persian and Syrian artistry. Israel has a lively gallery scene with galleries ranging form Tel Aviv's contemporary Raw Art Gallery
Raw Art Gallery
Raw Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel, founded by Shimon Ben Shabbat and Eldan Barnoon.Exhibited artists include Ido Shemi, Daniel Tchetchik, Adam Sher, Shirley Kanyon, Uri Dotan, Tami Amit, Eran Wolkowski, James Unsworth, Manuel Ohlendrf, and Christodoulos...
to Jerusalem's more representational Mayanot Gallery
Mayanot Gallery
Mayanot Gallery is an art gallery located on King George Street in Jerusalem.The gallery was opened in 1986 by Yael Gahnassia, soon after she emigrated to Jerusalem form Paris...
.
Music
Classical music in Israel has been vibrant since the 1930s when hundreds of music teachers and students, composers, instrumentalists and singers, as well as thousands of music lovers, streamed into the country, driven by the threat of Nazism in Europe. The founding of The Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra (today the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) 1936, marked the beginning of Israel's classical music scene. In the early 1980s, the New Israeli Opera began staging productions, reviving public enthusiasm for operatic works. The Russian immigration in the 1990s boosted the classical music arena both with new talents and music lovers. The contemporary music scene in Israel is hugely varied, dynamic and eclectic. It spans across all spectrums of musical genres and often fuses many musicals influences ranging from Ethiopian, Middle-Eastern soul, rock, jazz, hip hop, electronic, Arabic, pop and mainstream. Israeli music is versatile and combines elements of both western and eastern music. It tends to be very eclectic and contains a wide variety of influences from the Diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
and more modern cultural importation: Hassidic songs, Asian and Arab pop (especially by Yemenite singers), and Israeli hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
or heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. Israel is also home to several world-class classical music ensembles such as the Israel Philharmonic and the New Israeli Opera. Also popular are various forms of electronic music, including trance, hard-trance, and goa-trance. Notable artists from Israel popular in this field are limited but include the psychedelic trance duo Infected Mushroom
Infected Mushroom
Infected Mushroom is an Israeli psychedelic trance DJ act and electronic group originally formed in late 1997 as a duo by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani in Haifa...
.
Dance
Hora
Hora is a type of circle dance originating in the Balkans but also found in other countries. The name is cognate to the Greek χορός : 'dance' which is cognate with the ancient Greek art form of χορεία; see Chorea. The original meaning of the Greek word χορός may have been 'circle'...
and Yemenite dance. Israeli folk dancing
Israeli folk dancing
Israeli folk dancing is a form of dance usually performed to music from Israel, with dances choreographed for specific songs. Most Israeli dances are performed in a circle, although there are also partner dances and line dances.-History and description:...
today is choreographed for recreational and performance dance groups.
Modern dance
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
in Israel has won international acclaim. Israeli choreographers, among them Ohad Naharin
Ohad Naharin
Ohad Naharin is an Israeli contemporary dancer, choreographer and dance company artistic director.-Biography:...
and Barak Marshall
Barak Marshall
Barak Marshall is an American-born Israeli choreographer and singer.-Biography:Barak Marshall was born in the United States.In 1994, after studying social theory and philosophy at Harvard University, he immigrated to Israel, where he began a successful career as a choreographer and singer. He was...
are considered among the most versatile and original international creators working today. Notable Israeli dance companies include the Batsheva Dance Company
Batsheva Dance Company
The Batsheva Dance Company is an internationally acclaimed dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964....
and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. People come from all over Israel and many other nations for the annual dance festival in Karmiel
Karmiel
Karmiel is a city in northern Israel. Established in 1964 as a development town, Karmiel is located in the Beit HaKerem Valley which divides upper and lower Galilee. The city is located south of the Acre-Safed road, from Safed and from Acre...
, held in July. First held in 1988, the Karmiel Dance Festival is the largest celebration of dance in Israel, featuring three or four days and nights of dancing with 5,000 or more dancers and a quarter of a million spectators in the capital of the Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
. Begun as an Israeli folk dance event, the festivities now include performances, workshops, and open dance sessions for a variety of dance forms and nationalities. Choreographer Yonatan Karmon created the Karmiel Dance Festival to continue the tradition of Gurit Kadman
Gurit Kadman
Gurit Kadman was an Israeli dance instructor and choreographer, and is considered the mother of Israeli folk dancing.-Life:Gurit Kadman was born Gertrude Loewenstein in Leipzig, Germany in 1897 to an assimilated Jewish family who could trace their roots to Prague...
's Dalia Festival of Israeli dance, which ended in the 1960s.
Famous companies and choreographers from all over the world have come to Israel to perform and give master classes. In July 2010, Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
came to perform in Israel.
Theater
After 1948, two major motifs were the Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Moshe Shamir's He Walked in the Fields in 1949 was the first produced by a sabra writing about sabras in idiomatic and contemporary Hebrew. In the 1950s, dramatists portrayed the gap between pre-state dreams and disillusionment. Other plays pitted native Israelis against Holocaust survivors. Beginning in the 1960s, Hanoch Levin
Hanoch Levin
Hanoch Levin , was a prominent Israeli dramatist. He was also a theater director, an author and a poet, but he is best known for his plays.- Early life :...
wrote 56 plays and political satires. During the 1970s, Israeli theatre became more critical, highlighting extreme images of Israeli identity, such as the muscleman versus the spiritual Jew. In the 1980s, Yehoshua Sobol explored Israeli-Jewish identity issues. Today, Israeli theatre is extremely diverse in content and style, and half of all plays are local productions.
Cinema
Filmmaking in Israel has undergone major developments since its inception in the 1950s. The first features produced and directed by Israelis such as "Hill 24 Does Not Answer," and "They Were Ten," tended, like Israeli literature of the period, to be cast in the heroic mold. Some recent films remain deeply rooted in the Israeli experience, dealing with such subjects as Holocaust survivors and their children (Gila Almagor's "The Summer of Aviya" and its sequel, "Under the Domim Tree") and the travails of new immigrants ("Sh'hur", directed by Hannah Azoulai and Shmuel Hasfari, "late Marriage" directed by Dover Koshashvili). Others reflect a more predominant trend towards the present Israeli reality, whether dealing with the Israel-Arab and the Jews-Arabs confrontations (Eran Riklis's "The Lemon Tree", Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's "Ajami"), the military aspects in the Israelis life (Joseph Cedar's "Beaufort", Samuel Maoz's "Lebanon", Eytan Fox 's "Yossi and Jagger") or set in the context of universalist, somewhat alienated and hedonistic society (Eytan Fox's "A Siren's Song" and "The Bobble", Ayelet Menahemi and Nirit Yaron's "Tel Aviv Stories"). The Israeli film industry continues to gain worldwide recognition through International awards nominations. For three years consecutively Israeli films have been nominated for an Academy Award, namely, "Beaufort" (2008), "Waltz with Bashir" (2009) and "Ajami" (2010).Cuisine
Israeli cuisine
Israeli cuisine comprises local dishes by Jews native to Israel and dishes brought to Israel by Jews from the Diaspora. Since before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli Jewish fusion cuisine has developed.Israeli cuisine has adopted,...
, a diverse combination of local ingredients and dishes and immigrant dishes from around the world. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli fusion cuisine
Fusion cuisine
Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...
has developed with the adoption and continued adaption of elements of various Jewish styles of cuisine including Mizrahi, Sephardic, Yemeni Jewish
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
and Ashkenazi and many foods traditionally eaten in the Middle East.
Fashion
Israel has become an international center of fashion and design. Tel Aviv has been called the “next hot destination” for fashion. Israeli designers, such as swimwear company GottexGottex
Gottex is an Israeli swimwear manufacturer. It is America's top imported swimsuit label.-History:Gottex was founded in 1956 by Lea Gottlieb, a new immigrant from Hungary who adapted her expertise as a raincoat manufacturer to create a pioneering swimsuit company.She sold her wedding ring for...
show their collections at leading fashion shows, including New York’s Bryant Park
Bryant Park
Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan...
fashion show. In 2011, Tel Aviv hosted its first Fashion Week
Fashion Week
A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, which allows fashion designers, brands or "houses" to display their latest collections in runway shows and buyers and the media to take a look at the latest trends. Most importantly, these events let the industry know...
since the 1980s, with Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
designer Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...
as a guest of honor.
Sports
Sports and Fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
are important in Jewish culture. Athletic prowess, which was prized by the Ancient Greeks, was looked down upon as an unwelcome intrusion of Hellenistic values. Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, who was both a Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and a Physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, emphasized the importance of regular Exercise in preventing illness on the authority of Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
and Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...
. This approach reiceved a boost in the 19th century from the Physical culture campaign of Max Nordau
Max Nordau
Max Simon Nordau , born Simon Maximilian Südfeld in Pest, Hungary, was a Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic....
, and in the early 20th century when the Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
of Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
, declared that the body serves the soul, and only a Healthy body can ensure a Healthy soul.
The Maccabiah Games
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah is an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics held in Israel every four years under the auspices of the Maccabi Federation, affiliated with the Maccabi World Union. The Maccabiah Games is the third largest international sports competition in the world...
, an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes and Israeli athletes, was inaugurated in the 1930s, and has been held every 4 years since then. In 1964, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
hosted and won the AFC Asian Cup
AFC Asian Cup
The AFC Asian Cup is an international association football tournament run by the Asian Football Confederation . It is the second oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América. The winning team becomes the champion of Asia and automatically qualifies for the FIFA...
; in 1970, the Israel national football team
Israel national football team
The Israel national football team is the national football team of Israel, controlled by the Israel Football Association .Israel National Football is the direct successor of the Eretz Yisrael National Team during British Mandate...
managed to qualify to the FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, which is still considered the biggest achievement in Israeli Football.
Israel was excluded from the 1978 Asian Games
1978 Asian Games
The 8th Asian Games were held from December 9, 1978 to December 20, 1978 in Bangkok, Thailand. Originally, the host city was Singapore but Singapore dropped its plan to host the Games due to financial problems. And then Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan was decided to host the 8th Games...
due to Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
pressure on the organizers. The exclusion left Israel in limbo and it ceased competing in Asian competitions. In 1994, UEFA
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
agreed to admit Israel and all Israeli sporting organizations now compete in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Football (soccer) and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
are the most popular sports in Israel. The Israeli Premier League is the country's Premier Soccer League
Premier Soccer League
Premier Soccer League is the trading name of the National Soccer League of South Africa. The top league is the ABSA Premiership, sponsored by ABSA...
, and Ligat ha'Al is the premier basketball league. Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Haifa F.C.
Maccabi Haifa Football Club is an Israeli football team from the city of Haifa, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The club has won 12 championships, 5 State Cups and 4 Toto Cups...
, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem are the largest sports clubs. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, and Hapoel Tel Aviv have competed in the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
and Hapoel Tel Aviv reached the Quarterfinal in the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
. Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. has won the European Championship
European Championship
-List:Athletics* European Athletics ChampionshipsAustralian rules football* EU CupAuto racing* European Championship * European Formula Two Championship * European Touring Car Championship...
in Basketball 5 times. Israeli Tennis champion Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er
Shahar Pe'er is an Israeli professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is World No. 11, which she achieved on January 31, 2011 ....
peeked 11th at the WTA rank list, a national record.
Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
has become a national chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
center; thanks to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of Chess grandmasters of any city in the world. The city hosted the World Team Chess Championship
World Team Chess Championship
The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent.-Men's team medals:-Women's team medals:-References:*...
in 2005, and Chess is taught in the city's kindergartens. The Israeli Chess team won the silver medal at the 2008 Chess Olympiad, and the bronze medal at the 2010 Chess Olympiad
39th Chess Olympiad
The 39th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on to...
. Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
is the current Chess World Cup
Chess World Cup
The Chess World Cup is the name given to a number of different chess tournaments. The format and significance of the tournaments has changed over the years....
holder.
To date, Israel has won seven Olympic medals since its first win in 1992
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
, including a gold medal in Windsurfing
Windsurfing
Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...
at the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
. Israel has won over 100 gold medals in the Paralympic Games
Paralympic Games
The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...
and is ranked about 15th in the All-time Paralympic Games medal table
All-time Paralympic Games medal table
An all-time medal table for all Paralympic Games from 1960 to 2008 Summer Paralympic Games and 1976 to 2010 Winter Paralympic Games is tabulated below....
. The 1968 Summer Paralympics
1968 Summer Paralympics
The 1968 Summer Paralympics were the third Paralympic Games to be held. Organised under the guidance of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation , they were known as the 17th International Stoke Mandeville Games at the time...
were hosted by Israel.
Outdoor and vacation culture
Along the 190 kilometres (118.1 mi) of the Israeli Mediterranean coast, two thirds are accessible to bathing activities. Isrel has 100 surf bathing beaches guarded by professional lifeguards. Matkot
Matkot
Matkot is a popular paddle ball game in Israel similar to beach tennis, often referred to as the country's national sport.Matkot is a non-competitive beach game in which two or more players hit a small ball back and forth using paddles...
is a popular paddle ball game similar to beach tennis
Beach tennis
For another sport called "beach paddleball", see Matkot. For other sports called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Beach Tennis USA takes the fun and fast-paced sport of tennis and combines it with the sun, sea and sand of the beach....
, often referred to as the country's national sport.
Wedding customs
All marriages between Jews in Israel are registered with the Chief Rabbinate and the ceremony follows Orthodox Jewish practiceHalakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
. As civil ceremonies are not performed in Israel, a growing number of secular couples circumvent this by traveling to nearby locations such as Cyprus. While most Jews in Israel have adopted Western styles in dress, traditional clothing and jewelry is sometimes brought out for pre-wedding rituals in the Mizrahi and Yemenite community, such as the henna
Henna
Henna is a flowering plant used since antiquity to dye skin, hair, fingernails, leather and wool. The name is also used for dye preparations derived from the plant, and for the art of temporary tattooing based on those dyes...
ceremony.
Museums
With over 200 museums, Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world, with millions of visitors annually.See also
- List of Israeli musical artists
- List of Israeli visual artists
- List of Hebrew language poets
- List of Hebrew language authors
- List of Israeli actors
- List of Hebrew language playwrights
- Science and technology in IsraelScience and technology in IsraelScience and technology in Israel is one of the country's most developed sectors. The percentage of Israelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry, and the amount spent on research and development in relation to gross domestic product , is amongst the highest in the world...
- Religion in IsraelReligion in IsraelReligion in Israel is a central feature of the country and plays a major role in shaping Israeli culture and lifestyle, and religion has played a central role in Israel's history. Israel is also the only country in the world where a majority of citizens are Jewish...
- Israeli cuisineIsraeli cuisineIsraeli cuisine comprises local dishes by Jews native to Israel and dishes brought to Israel by Jews from the Diaspora. Since before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli Jewish fusion cuisine has developed.Israeli cuisine has adopted,...
- Jewish ethnic divisionsJewish ethnic divisionsJewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered one single self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic divisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an...