Iran to Israel, Tehran to Tel Aviv

Last month, at the height of the war with Iran, while ballistic missiles were flying (and sadly occasionally also landing) all over the place, and our lives were governed by the Home Front Command’s instructions, our team of producers went out to the street and asked Israelis in various different cities to speak directly to folks in Iran.

At the end of that episode, we mentioned that we hoped to air a counterpart episode, in which people in Iran talk directly to us, here in Israel, and tell us what their lives are like. What are their thoughts? Their fears? What do they want us Israelis to know about their experience of war?

There were a lot of challenges in pulling this off: to begin with there was very limited internet in Iran, and many social media platforms were either down or else heavily restricted. Then, there is obviously a lot of fear and suspicion, and – of course – the elephant in the room, our show is called Israel Story.

But with the help of local partners, we managed to receive dozens of messages from folks all over Iran. Many of them were written, rather than recorded, and almost all those who sent them in asked to remain anonymous and/or make their voices unrecognizable. So employing the true magic of AI, we created Persian-sounding voices who bring you a tapestry of very real messages from Iranians to Israelis.

The end song is Dror Yikra (“Proclaim Freedom”) performed by Mike Rauss, Yael Dagon, and Ardavan Hatami.

Produced in partnership with The Times of Israel.

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