Reflecting the times, Israel Festival to be held in north and south, as well as Jerusalem
64th edition of annual cultural event focuses on performances that reflect the ongoing war; no visiting performers in festival that used to host international participants
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
This year’s Israel Festival, for the first time in its 64 years of existence as a summer cultural program, will follow up nine days of events in Jerusalem with four days in the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights, and then three in the Western Negev.
Jerusalem, along with the northern towns of Kiryat Shmona, Tel Hai, Kfar Blum and Majdal Shams, and Ofakim, Kibbutz Urim and Kibbutz Tze’elim in the south, will host the festival’s unique mix of performance art and music, theater and dance.
“This year’s festival stems from what is happening around us and within us,” directors Itay Mautner and Michal Vaknin said in a statement.
Last year’s festival was delayed till September, and was held in Jerusalem and in the Western Negev, the epicenter of the October 7 Hamas massacre, where terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza.
Mautner and Vaknin, who have been directing the annual event for four years, commented that this year’s festival offers a perspective on the country’s current circumstances.
“Perhaps it’s still too soon to speak of recovery,” they wrote. “Recovery begins where the war ends, and we are still caught in a vortex that pulls us, time and again, to opposite extremes. Reality stings, splinters, and shatters us. Our hearts are broken and our eyes are still far from dry. And amidst all this, life asks us to infuse it with meaning; to make it worthy of the weight it carries. To observe, respond, and act, rather than standing by.”
This year’s events include more than one event referring directly to the tragedies and traumas of the last 20 months of war. The festival also does not include any visiting performers, once a regular feature that was seen as an opportunity for Israelis to access European and American entertainers.
In “Speeches Against Despair” on July 3, actor Guri Alfi and Eli Haviv work with actress Noa Koler, musician Noga Erez, actor Norman Issa, actress Maya Landsmann, screenwriter Galit Hoogi and others to offer new interpretations to historical speeches.
The festival will offer another round of The Music People, a social project that features emerging musicians from areas in northern and southern Israel evacuated since October 7, performing alongside established Israeli musicians such as Jane Bordeaux, Daniela Spector and hip-hop band Shazamat. It will be performed in Jerusalem on July 1 and on July 17 at Tel Hai College in the north.
“Al-Malab,” or “The Pitch,” will memorialize the 12 children and teens killed on July 24 when a Hezbollah rocket hit a soccer field in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams.
The audience will arrive at a soccer field to watch the Majdal Shams youth team practice, but the audience members will wear headphones through which they will hear a compilation of texts, memories, and recorded voices, collected pieces of the lives that were lost.
“The Pitch” will be held in Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park on July 3 and in
Majdal Shams on July 14 and July 15.
Trumpeter Avishai Cohen will perform works from his latest album, “From Ashes to Gold,” a five-part suite created in the wake of October 7, with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra on July 2 in Jerusalem.
In “Coming Home,” Talmud teacher Chaya Gilboa will offer performative Talmud lessons on July 2 and July 3 in Jerusalem, along with cellist Maya Belsitzman, singer and composer Orit Tshuma, actor and puppeteer Daniel Engel, as well as activist Raya Adani, actor Meitan Raz and former hostage and educator Liat Atzili.
Drummer Tuval Haim, whose brother Yotam Haim was accidentally killed by IDF troops when he and fellow hostages Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka escaped from their Hamas captors in Gaza, will perform from his new album, “Brothers,” with singers Tomer Yosef and Echo, on July 23 in Kibbutz Tze’elim.
During “Spurs” on July 8 and 9, marking the 25th anniversary of the Sapir prize for literature, Jerusalem’s Hansen House and gardens will host storytelling circles and authors, with Etgar Keret, Arkadi Duchin, and Daniel Koren celebrating the written word and the act of reading.
Another event in the south is “VHS Blast from the Past” in collaboration with the municipalities of Kiryat Shmona in the north and Ofakim in the south.
The event, held on July 16 in Kiryat Shmona and on July 24 in Ofakim, invites artists from different disciplines to find meaningful moments in old VHS tapes from the 1980s and 1990s and work them into a contemporary theater piece, created by choreographer Renana Raz and Nitzan Cohen.
In “Her Father’s Daughter,” actress Netta Shpigelman, the daughter of Elisha Shpigelman, a prominent reporter who fought throughout his life for social justice and equality, sits on a set inspired by a news studio, where she addresses her father’s battles and settles scores, unveiling a kind of seance with her father’s memory.
Dancer Gal Gorfung offers an autobiographical dance piece in “Fusion,” as he battles a rare cancer and dances through the physical changes he is experiencing. The performance on July 2 and July 3 at the Jerusalem Theater combines dance, video projections, singing and drag.
Another event in the north is “Bright Future,” with teens from the north who engage in the act of questioning with Alit Kreiz and Ayelet Golan, and performed on July 15 at the Clore Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper Galilee Regional Council.
Eyal Sher, CEO of the festival, said the event team is operating out of a deep belief in artistic creation as a tool for strengthening the fabric of shared life in Israel, against the backdrop of the physical and social rehabilitation challenges of Israeli society, political polarization and international isolation.
“We hope that the works will bring light, tenderness and compassion to the extremely difficult reality in which we are all placed,” said Sher.
As in other years, ticket prices range from NIS 50 to NIS 160 with a variety of benefits for senior citizens, students, soldiers, Jerusalem cardholders and customer clubs.
Admission to the festival performances in the Western Negev and Upper Galilee costs NIS 50 per ticket.
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