missionary who tried to convert Ethiopian Jews in the mid-19th century. Of
course, when he appeared, he looked
nothing like I imagined. He was a young
30-year-old sporting a curly Jewfro,
jeans and a ready smile. He launched
into explaining how he dreamed up Sipur
Israeli, on a USA road trip through Mississippi country listening to ‘This American Life’. Harman loved the programme
and decided this was going to be his next
project when he returned to Israel.
On returning to Israel, Harman, with
his three close childhood friends, Ro’ee
Gilron, Yochai Maital and Shai Satran,
embarked on creating the Israeli equivalent of ‘This American Life’. The first
one-hour show which Harman and his
friends aired as a podcast for family and
friends went viral, and thus began Sipur
Israeli’s journey.
From Tel Aviv Jews to Russian and
Ethiopian Jews to Middle Eastern Jews,
Anglos, Orthodox, secular, Kibbutzniks, Arab-Israelis, Eurasion refugees, Bedouins, Christians and foreign
workers. Whatever their political, religious beliefs… they’re listening. Words
can build or break bridges between
groups. For Mishy and his friends, it’s
all about building bridges. Coming from
a similar background, they had to make
a concerted effort to reach all sectors of
Israeli society. They were breaking out
of their box and accessing other sectors
of society who weren’t like them.
Like their radio role model, ‘This American Life’, each episode has a theme, and
several stories that relate to the theme in
creative ways. The episodes reveal the
group’s ingenuity in accessing the everyday Israeli and their unusual, gritty sto-
ries. Such as episode five – ‘24 Hours at
the Pancake House’… Here, the team
camped out for 24 hours at the original
Pancake House, an all-night diner on Israel’s route 2, outside Herzliya, interviewing the staff, the patrons, and the car
wash guy next door. This resulted in stories about Luba, a much courted waitress;
a family on the way back from a wedding;
a philosophising car washer; a mandolinbanjo player; a couple picnicking beside
Israel’s busiest highway; and more.
What better way of getting a genuine
cross-section of distinct Israeli voices
than interviewing the inhabitants of
every 48 Herzl Street in Israel. This is
what they set out to do in Episode 9,
with very entertaining results.
When Harman tells the story of Chaya,
his enthusiasm and passion is palpable.
He relates how he took his whole family
to meet Chaya, because she was one of
the most amazing people he’d ever met.
Israel Story devotes a whole episode to
her tale. To the outsider, Harman relates,
Chaya appears like nothing more than
the stereotypical Ultra-Orthodox woman. When one bothers to look deeper and
ask for her story, it turns out that Chaya
is a remarkable woman with a life story
that transcends the expected. She grew
up as a New York Jewish girl who moved
to Alaska to study sea otters. She ends up
marrying an Alaskan man and they have
a few children. Their last child has Downs
Syndrome. Thus begins their journey
into adopting another Downs Syndrome
baby to keep their child company. Looking for a more supportive environment
for their large, special needs family, they
move to Israel, become Orthodox and
wind up living in Safed. Chaya journeys
on to become an advocate for Downs
Syndrome babies, adopting up to five
Downs Syndrome babies who are abandoned at the hospital where they’re born.
That’s not half the story, of course. To
find out you’d have to listen to Episode
11 on Israel Story.
One way the Israel Story team gathers their stories is by hosting storytelling evenings. Harman relates how the
first one was in his lounge. This was followed by many more. The most memorable one for Harman was a storytelling
evening on a Tel Aviv beach under the
stars, where Moshe Dayan’s 96-year-old
widow, Ruth Dayan, shared her story.
Israel Story is a grassroots success story.
It was begun and financed by four young
guys, working after hours. Each episode
has about 150 000 listeners, and are
downloaded regularly as podcasts. Their
programme has a broader appeal than
they could have imagined. They’re currently working on their second season and
the good news for us is that they’re working on an English mini-series. For a country that so often appears on the news and
radio as a place of confl