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  • Ron Jacobsohn Goes Backstage at the X-Factor Finale

    Ron Jacobsohn Goes Backstage at the X-Factor Finale

    Israel has once again proven to be the multi cultural society it wants to the world to know it is. Rose Fostanes, the Filipino caregiver from the Levinski district in Tel-Aviv went to audition for The X-Factor and against all odds won the competition and in the process became a global role model.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    So once again Israel has proven to be the multi cultural society it wants to the world to know it is. Rose Fostanes, the Filipino caregiver from the Levinski district in Tel-Aviv went to audition for The X-Factor and against all odds won the competition and in the process became a global role model.

    Bar Rafeal: The big winner of X-Factor is… the big winner is Rose!!!!

    The production of X-Factor surprised Rose when they arranged for her longtime life-partner, Mel Adel, to come to Israel for the finale and reunite with her sweetheart after three-years the two have not been able to meet.

    Mel Adel, Rose’s Girlfriend:
    Rose is very known in the Philippines, I am very happy that I could come for the finals, so very very happy.

    Standing tall and proud at one meter and fifty centimeters, Rose Fostanes, was beyond words after she was pounced the winner.

    Rose Fostanes, X-Factor Israel Winner:
    I am speechless, I cannot say anything now, I don’t… I really, I can’t believe that it happened to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for all the Israelis and all the Filipinos around the world whose working in care givers like people like me, thank you so much for all the support and I really love you. Question: Did you expect the Israelis to embrace and love you as much as they did?

    Rose Fostanes, X-Factor Israel Winner:
    No, I don’t believe it, but when I’m seeing on the street, they love, they care about me, I start to believe it.

    The Filipino Ambassador to Israel, Generoso DG Calonge, who has been following Rose throughout the whole competition, admits that Rose has become a national hero to Filipinos all around the world.

    Generoso D.G. Calonge, Filipino Ambassador to Israel:
    We helped her in meeting her sister and the girlfriend, we assisted her somehow and we are proud with her achievement, we’re happy that she had this chance to prove herself in her singing talent, because she’s some kind of a late bloomer in a way and this added a new dimension to her personality as a skilled person and also as a talented person, it’s a social pride, we’re happy that she did it.

    Shiri Maymon, who herself started her career on an Israeli talent show many years ago and rose to international stardom after representing Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest, served as Rose’s mentor on the show — claims she truly feels proud of being an Israeli following Fostanes victory.

    Shiri Maymon, Rose’s Mentor on X-Factor:
    A foreigner in Israel, she didn’t speak Hebrew , she didn’t sing in Hebrew but yet they audience in Israel voted for her, it means that they just took everything aside and they believed in her, in her voice, in her story and it’s so, you know, it’s emotional for me. I was so excited today.
    It doesn’t matter how old you are, you know. For her it was like her last chance to do that, to fulfil her dream. That was her dream since she was like 3 years old but she was somewhere, taking care of people for the last 30 years and it was sad, it was sad for me to hear it because her dream is to be a singer, so she came all the way to Israel to have the dream come true, it’s crazy and I’m proud of Israel, I’m proud of the voters that they voted for her, It’s amazing.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    So Rose, her sister and her girlfriend are now celebrating now out on the town and Israel has a new hero in the winner of X-Factor. For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn in Tel-Aviv.

  • Ron Jacobsohn Attends the Media Preview for the Masada Opera Festival

    Ron Jacobsohn Attends the Media Preview for the Masada Opera Festival

    Returning to the lowest place on the face of the earth, the Israeli Opera Festival, is going to held this coming June at Masada for the 4th time featuring Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, directed by world renowned director, Michal Znanieki, and his team. We attended the media preview of this major cultural event in this year’s Israeli calendar. Even before the official launch of the event, over eleven thousand tickets have already been sold, over half of them to what classifies as “cultural tourists”, who plan to come Israel especially for the festival.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    Returning to the lowest place on the face of the earth, the Israeli Opera Festival, is going to held this coming June at Masada for the 4th time featuring Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, directed by world renowned director, Michal Znanieki, and his team. We attended the media preview of this major cultural event in this year’s Israeli calendar.

    Israeli Minister of Tourism, Dr. Uzi Landau, is extremely proud with the growing numbers of tourists to Israel under his leadership and hopes that future attractions like the Opera in Masada will lure more tourists to come to visit the holy land.

    Dr. Uzi Landau, Israeli Minister of Tourism:
    It’s a special event for cultural tourism, for those who are going to combine with this backdrop of Masada that has its roots in thousands and thousands of years of history, of a beautiful legacy with scenery that is unmatched. It’s going to be, I believe the fourth event in which operas are brought up and played there and Israel is already becoming a major players on the international scene, we have had this year 3.5 million tourists, we would like to see a number of percent growth, I believe we might have another one to two additional percentages this year.

    The CEO of the Israeli Opera, Hana Munitz, love to tell everyone how her team builds every year from scratch a little town in the middle of nowhere in order to create the spectacle of the Opera on top of mount Masada.

    Hana Munitz, CEO, Israeli Opera:
    When we started this festival in Masada, we had to build a full city because we came to a desert, there was nothing. On the one hand you had Masada on the mountain, on the other hand you have the Dead Sea, the lowest place in Israel and the world actually, and in the middle between them – a desert with nothing in it, so we had to build roads to get to start to do something there, to bring water pipes, electricity, everything. We build a tribune for 7500 seats every night and the stage, the stage is 68 meters wide and the opening of the stage is 68 meters so it’s something that we had to build from scratch. We have 250,000people working on this project for several months every year; building the area, and then in the end we have 700 people performing on stage including; singers, dancers, an orchestra and a chorus, all of that is in order to make this place, the Negev, the south of Israel thrive and bring in tourists to give life to this magnificent, heroic place of Masada. Every Year, it brings 18 Million Shekels into the economy in Israel, mainly from hotels, buses, taxies etc, etc. So it’s a project that not only brings culture to this country but also improves the economy here.

    Idan Raichel, who has long accepted the fact that his musical project has become the world ambassador of Israeli music, will also perform during the Masada spectacle with 92 of his band members on stage.

    Idan Raichel, World Music Performer:
    It’s a very unique band, for those viewers who are not familiar with the Idan Raichel Project, it’s a musical project that I’ve recorded back home in Kfar Saba,over 95 musicians and singers, the youngest member in the project is 16, and the young spirits are 83 and 91 years old. Over 95 musicians from different places around the world, we are not touring with 95 musicians and singers but we have on stage always between 14 to 18 amazing musicians and singers, very versatile, from acoustic influences to electric influences, from singers from Tel-Aviv, and singers that were born in the refugees camps in Sudan or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, guitar players from Morocco or percussion Rio de Janeiro, so I think that this band reflects the multi ethnic sounds that you can find here. As a World Music artist, you know, we’re doing Israeli music but world music artists have the privilege to score, to write the soundtrack of the place that they came from. If people listen to my music around the world, take it as the soundtrack of Israel in the past decade, for me it’s the biggest compliment.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    Even before the official launch of the event over eleven thousand tickets have already been sold, over half of them to what classifies as “cultural tourists”, who plan to come Israel especially for the festival.
    For JN1 I am at the Israeli Opera House in Tel-Aviv.

  • Ron Jacobsohn Talks to Israeli and Palestinians Film Critics about Omar

    Some might say its serendipitous others might believe its art imitating life but fact is that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority choose as their representative to the Oscars this year a movie based on the same story, about a relationship between a Palestinian collaborator and his Israeli operator at the intelligence services.
    When the Academy published its short list of movies for the Foreign Language category they choose to advance the Palestinian movie, Omar, and not the Israeli one, Bethlehem. So just before the Oscar nominations are announced this week, we wanted to find out from movie critics from the Israeli and Palestinian side, how come the Palestinian movie resonated better with the Academy members.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    Some might say its serendipitous others might believe its art imitating life but fact is that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority choose as their representative to the Oscars this year a movie based on the same story, about a relationship between a Palestinian collaborator and his Israeli operator at the intelligence services.
    When the Academy published its short list of movies for the Foreign Language category they choose to advance the Palestinian movie, Omar, and not the Israeli one, Bethlehem. So just before the Oscar nominations are announced this week, we wanted to find out from movie critics from the Israeli and Palestinian side, how come the Palestinian movie resonated better with the Academy members.

    Alon Garbus who manages the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque says it was very natural for him to screen Omar in his facilities.

    Alon Garbuz, Manager, Tel-Aviv Cinematheque:
    It’s not the first time we are showing a Hany Abu Assad film, we had some years ago “Paradise now” that was a commercial success and now Omar is the same story like Bethlehem, so Bethlehem was in our neighbor “Cinema Lev” and we took Omar so we will not become rich from these films but I feel good with this film.

    The Culture & Lifestyle editor at The Times of Israel, Jessica Steinberg, explains that— how the story is told is what makes each of the two movies unique.

    Jessica Steinberg, Culture & Lifestyle Editor, The Times of Israel:
    Bethlehem is a story about a Shin-Bet fisker so to speak and his collaborator who he has brought up from let’s say youth, and the relationship between them and feels very close to him and feels very emotions about him which is ultimately really take shim down a certain path in the movie. And the story, which unfolds, which of course is in some ways more Israeli, because the main character is a Jewish Israeli, whereas the other characters are Palestinians. From the same perspective, Omar is essentially 100% Palestinian, but of course there are some Israeli Jewish characters.

    Tamer Nafar who writes about movies for Qadita – The Arab Culture Website believes that it is easy to play the game of the Israeli movie versus the Palestinian one but the end of the day its about the art of filmmaking and the academy seems to like how Hany Abu Assad makes movies.

    Tamer Nafar, Qadita – The Arab Culture Website:
    In a way of course I believe that Hollywood is you know, like it’s a politics game but I think they picked Hany for the second time because I think he is bringing layers, that is the most.. It’s not all black and white, and I think Hany is part of the… you know, there aren’t many artists who are blessed with the talent to find the balance in between being an artist and being a guy with a message and at the same time entertain.

    Garbuz admits he was quite surprised when he saw two movies where made on the same article published in Ha’aretz Newspaper a few years ago.

    Alon Garbuz, Manager, Tel-Aviv Cinematheque:
    Those movies are based on the same story that was published some years ago in the Ha’aretz Newspaper and they were impressed in a different way, if Bethlehem is a little bit balanced so Omar is telling you the truth in your face.

    Steinberg tries to explain why the academy decided to favor Omar over Bethlehem.

    Jessica Steinberg, Culture & Lifestyle Editor, The Times of Israel:
    I would say that Omar, a love story can sort of grab’s you and they are very beautiful young people in Omar and that is something that really moves that movie forward a lot.

    Tamer Nafar, Qadita – The Arab Culture Website:
    And for me to walk out of this movie and feel sympathy with that “collaborator”, I think that’s genius, that’s genius when you give, when you put light on and you break stereotypes. I think it’s very important, very necessary. I believe that the gate is open for us to believe, not just seeking for things, but just doing it and I truly appreciate Hany for what he did.

    So what are the chances of a movie from Israel or The Palestinian Authority winning an Oscar?

    Jessica Steinberg, Culture & Lifestyle Editor, The Times of Israel
    I would say that generally, the films that came out of these region do not end up winning the Oscar, it could happen one day, I don’t think.. I mean, you could say that, yes eventually it will be a film about the situation that will win that Foreign Film Oscar or you can say it’ll be something completely different, light, easy, about people and not about necessarily about politics. So, my guess is as good as anyone’s.

    Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
    Israel has been nominated ten-times for the Foreign Language Oscar over the years but has never won. If chosen, this would be the Palestinian Authorities second Oscar nomination, with both movies directed by Nazareth born, Hany Abu Assad, who has lived in the Netherlands since the early nineteen-eighties.
    For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn in Tel-Aviv.

  • HBO Launches Looking

    HBO Launches Looking

    i24news Morning Edition with Yael Lavie for January 15th, 2014.
    Ron Jacobsohn talks about HBO canceling The Newsroom after it’s third (and now last) season as it is about to launch its newest LGBT dramedy, Looking as a replacement, American Idol launches its new season with new judges and FOX decides to abolish Pilot Season for a direct to series system.

  • Ron Jacobsohn Discovers the True Meaning of Tu Bishvat

    Ron Jacobsohn Discovers the True Meaning of Tu Bishvat

    Little known fact is that the Jewish calendar traditionally has not one but four new years days, each with a different purpose. One for counting the years of the reigns of kings in ancient Israel, animal tithe to the priestly class similar to what we know today as the new tax year, one to commemorate when the world was created and lastly the date for determining the age of the trees. So this year we wanted to find out how Tu Bishvat, which is the New Year for the Trees, is actually a lot more important to the Jewish calendar than people know.