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  • Ron Jacobsohn Talks to the People Behind the Israeli TV Formats

    Somehow Israel has turned into a television format Mecca over the last several years with shows like Homeland, In Treatment and a slew of game shows like Still Standing, hitting it big on American Prime Time Television. Ron Jacobsohn went to talk to some of the players to inquire what the secret of the success of those Israeli formats is.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    Somehow Israel has turned into a television format empire over the last few years with Israeli shows like Homeland, In Treatment and game shows, Still Standing, hitting it big on American Prime Time Television. JN1 went to talk to some of the local players to find out what the secret of the success of the Israeli formats is.

    The Israeli formats have become a hot-ticket in the international markets almost to the point that distributors are afraid not to be able to nab the next Israeli format tells us the executive director at Ananey Communications, Sigal Shaldag.

    Sigal Shaldag, Executive Director, Ananey Communications:
    I think that now when I’m coming to a market and people met me and they said you know we have to have something from Israel. Everybody heard about the success of Homeland and ‘Hatufim’, you know the format of ‘Hatufim’, and everybody’s trying and I found for example at Mip-TV when I attended, that people are afraid to lose the next format, or the next show from Israel. It’s not that they want something from Israel, they’re afraid to lose the next big thing that that will come from Israel. They line up to meet us and we feel, you know, a big you know, openness in the market to hear the creativity of the Israeli, and I think it’s like the Hi-tech. It used to be Israel equal to hi-tech and innovation and I think we feel it now in the markets is that Israel equal to innovation in content and that’s a very very important, and I think it’s opened the door to all the Israeli companies and I think that it will be, and we can achieve a lot of success in this field, as Israelis.

    The pioneer of the Israeli formats internationally, the president of Armoza Formats, Avi Armoza, is very proud of the fact that Israel was recently named number one country in the world for selling its formats.

    Avi Armoza, President, Armoza Formats:
    I think that this is something to do very much within our culture, within our culture we are storytellers, you know we might not be that successful in the Olympics, but we know how to tell a story and this is the business of television; is it a game-show, is it factual show, is it a drama series. You need to tell good stories and this is something that we know how to do, but yet the local market needs are limited, we’re still a small country with very limited outlets of television and if we, if we as Israelis or the young generation want to work on television, we need to look into the international world as our market. If we know how to make good television, we can do it for the world and not just for the local market.

    Nadav Palti, the president of Dori Media Group claims the next natural phase in the selling Israeli formats around the world is that the big networks will also produce their shows in Israel too.

    Nadav Palti, President, Dori Media Group:
    We’re already in negotiations with a few countries, that they came here, studied the markets, studied the situation, make the budget, analyze it and they now understand how to produce series really, really cheaper, much cheaper and also we already did it, we .. It’s published so I can speak about it, you know that CBS; the biggest network today in the world and ITV produced here in our studio, in Neve Ilan.

    Prisoners of War, Hatufim, is maybe the most popular format out of Israel due to the success of the American version of it, Homeland. Karen Shahar the head of distribution for Keshet International who sold the format still doesnǯt believe how huge the show has become internationally.

    Keren Shahar, Head of Distribution, Keshet International:
    It’s a testament to how the international community and not just the American community, has embraced ‘Homeland’ and ‘Hatufim’; Prisoners of War, you know, that the Israeli series which we sold to over 10 territories. This is something that a year ago, I would have laughed if you would have told me. Five years ago, If I were to say I’m from Israel, they would say “Keshet who? Israel what?” but today when we say we’re from Israel, they immediate response is wow, you guys are so creative, you have so much good stuff , so it’s a great ice-breaker and a great lead to the conversation.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    After concurring the very lucrative American market and the European, Australian and Latin markets, the last frontier seemed to be the Asian market, which has traditionally been hard to penetrate into for western style television shows. But leave it to the Israelis to do the impossible… Keshet International has just finalized a deal with China’s, Shixi Media, to licenses six of its shows for Chinese television. For JN1, I am Ron Jacobsohn in Tel-Aviv.

    Clips courtesy of: Keshet International, Showtime Networks, Ananey Communications, Armoza Formats and Dori Media Group

  • Ron Jacobsohn Talks to Experts about the Clothes Bomb Threat

    Ron Jacobsohn Talks to Experts about the Clothes Bomb Threat

    Ron Jacobsohn Talks to Experts about the Clothes Bomb Threat

    The latest Intel coming from the intelligence communities is that Al-Qaeda has managed to develop a new type of explosives, which can go undedicated by traditional explosive directors, as it is liquid and can be twined on clothes. According to experts the threat of this newly developed liquid explosive is predominantly in the publicity it is getting and not in the actual harm it might do.

     

  • Ron Jacobsohn Asks Experts What they Think of the Proposed Haredim IDF Draft

    Ron Jacobsohn Asks Experts What they Think of the Proposed Haredim IDF Draft

    Ron Jacobsohn Asks Experts What they Think of the Proposed Haredim IDF Draft

    When the State of Israel created, then prime minister, David Ben Gurion ushered the status quo between the orthodox and seculars in the newly formed country. He gave the around 500 families of ultra orthodox Haredi citizens a waver not to serve in the Israeli army in order to entrust their support in the Jewish state. In recent years many voices in the Israelis society have spoken out about changing the status quo especially due to the fact that the orthodox community has now grown to around 700-thousand and is seen as leaching off state money when they don’t contribute back to society.  In the recent election the Yish Atid party ran on a platform of the equality of the burden, which meant amongst others, enlisting all orthodox Jewish men to army like every citizen in the country. The Netanyahu government has recently approved the new draft law and now everyone is anxious to see when and how it will be implemented. We asked our experts what they think is going to happen next.

  • Ron Jacobsohn Meets the People behind Yvel Jewelry

    Ron Jacobsohn Meets the People behind Yvel Jewelry

    Some people are talkers and others are doers. Orna and Itzik Levi are one of doers. After creating one of the successful jewelry houses in Israel they decided to give back and crater school where members of the Ethiopian community can learn the craft of jewelry making and also get a job to make living of it. This is the inspiring story of two people who truly understand what giving is all about.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    Some people are talkers and others are doers. Orna and Itzik Levi are one of doers. After creating one of the successful jewelry houses in Israel they decided to give back and crater school where members of the Ethiopian community can learn the craft of jewelry making and also get a job to make living of it. This is the inspiring story of two people who truly understand what giving is all about.

    Itzhak Levy decided to take matters into his own hands when he saw the state neglected some of the poorest communities in Israel.

    Itzhak Levy, Owner, Yvel Jewelry:
    The School that Orna and I established in 2010 was the second stage of giving back. What we had done was reaching out to the most vulnerable community in Israel. What we want to do is we want to create a leadership in the Ethiopian community and to turn social cases into taxpayers. In order to do so we teach them the skills to become goldsmith, diamond setters, model makers, we teach them about the country, we teach them Hebrew, we teach them to become most of all proud citizens in a country that sometimes forgets to do so and we give them really a future by giving them also the possibility, once they graduate, to become a part of the Gameria factory, they own the company, they run it, they manufacture their own jewelry and with these sales they can really fund their own salaries and hopefully fund also the school activities, so they help us in order for us to be able to help them, it’s a partnership.

    When Gennett Admasu came on-board to manage the school she was nothing less than amazed by the initiative.

    Gennett Admasu, Manager, Yvel School:
    This project really amazed me, and the whole idea was that of Itzhak and Orna, to take a weaken population that are New immigrants in the country, and to give them a profession with which they can make a living with dignity, and I was so impressed by this that I didn’t even raise the salary issue, saying that I will take the job’ and really when I first came I got the job it was part-time job, I came and I worked with the previous class of students, I was really amazed and I enjoyed my position and I kept going and now I work a fulltime job and I’m having a great time, I really enjoy it.

    For Gameria graduate, Shimi Desaleah, who has been in Israel for 9-years and struggling to make ends-meet, learning a craft he can make a living off was not only a financial breakthrough but more than that it was gaining back his self-confidence he has lost when he immigrated to Israel.

    Shimi Desaleah, Graduate, Yvel School:
    I used to work at Berman Bakery, and it was a good job but very hard, it paid well but I had no profession, I had nothing and it was hard physical work. I was told; Go to Yvel, learn a profession, do work not by muscle force but work with the brain. It was difficult in school but eventually I made it and got a diploma. I’m excited, because previously I had no Hebrew skills, no nothing, and no profession but now I got a profession and I have a job.

    Levy who has immigrated to Israel exactly 50-years ago, truly feels today he has managed to do something to help others not go through the tough times his family has suffered when they first moved to Israel.

    Itzhik Levy, Owner, Yvel Jewelry:
    I, personally, was born in Argentina, I was born in Buenos Aires and we moved as a family in 1963 to Jerusalem. It was a really pretty bad childhood. When Orna and I had established Yvel and built it up our goal was always to hire only Jewish immigrants and that’s what we did. It’s a Zionist social business more than anything else.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    And the Gamberia success story is expanding, now that businessman and philanthropist, Stef Wertheimer, has decided to join forces with the Levi’s to create a branch for their school also in The Galilee. For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn at the Yvel Headquarters in Motza, by Jerusalem.

  • Ron Jacobsohn Explores the Newest Forest Management Polices at the JNF Conference

    Ron Jacobsohn Explores the Newest Forest Management Polices at the JNF Conference

    Ron Jacobsohn Explores the Newest Forest Management Polices at the JNF Conference

    The Jewish National Fund is holding a special one-day conference where it will unveil its newest Forrest Management Policy and also hand out scholarships to three scientists in the filed by the Renee Karshon Fund. The KKL/JNF is actually making history by creating their new Forest policy manifest, as it will make Israel the first country in the world to implement a national policy to be implemented in all Forest’s of the country.