In a country where over ninety-six percent of the couples are married and over forty percent of the population believes they should have at least three children, you can be sure that a holiday like the Family Day is a big thing. So we went to find out what is an average Israeli family.
What is fascinating to witness is that no matter what type of family you meet, in Israel, the one thing that connects them all is the inner obligation to maintain their heritage and to carry it on to future generations.
The over 500-years of history of the Jews in Turkey is brought to live at Bar Ilan University’s conference – The Jews of turkey: identity and Heritage.
As the pages if history were visited at the conference a clear message arose from all speakers: the current strain in the relationship between the Turks and the Jews should be taken with a grain of salt as a new page of good relations between the two is just around the corner.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
The over 500-years of history of the Jews in Turkey is brought to live at Bar Ilan University’s conference – The Jews of Turkey: Identity and Heritage
The perseverance of the Jewish community in Turkey over hundreds of years is definitely something worth taking a look at, says Dr. Efrat Aviv of the BESA Institute at Bar Ilan University, who helped organize this conference.
Dr. Efrat Aviv, Organizer of the Conference:
The Jewish community in Turkey and even in the Ottoman empire was a very successful one, they had their Golden Age and it’s true, it happens, it still happens but there’s a problem ever since the state of Israel was established, I mean ever since the relations between the government or their attitude towards the Jewish community is much controlled or dictated by the relations between the Israeli state and the Turkish state. The Jews of Turkey come or maybe fall in between both governments and we can see that very clearly in what is going on these days. It’s one of the largest Jewish communities under Muslim rule and it’s a vivid community that flourishes and still has roots, strong roots in Turkey, and how all this sheds a light towards what happened in the past; how they wereused to be treated in Ottoman era and how they are treated these days and I think it’s really an interesting, intriguing topic for the Israeli society as well.
MK Shimon Ohayon, of the Ha’Likud-Beytinu party, explains why the Jewish community in Turkey is so crucial to the Jewish History as a whole.
MK Shimon Ohayon, Chairman of Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University:
We had in this area over three hundred thousand Jewish people, now we haveonly 27 thousand so of course if you compare this situation totally has been changed and we are aware also of this situation because of the political situation. We do worry about what’s going and we do believe and we hope that our historywould have some kind of influence, the contribution, the good relationship between Israel, the Jewish people and the Turkish people, and the hospitality of the Ottoman empire maybe will come back and we’ll be able to see a good relationship between Israel and Turkey.
Abdel-Raouf Arnaout who is the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Turkish Anadolu News Agency explains that although the relationship between Turkey and Israel is still very strained on government level it didn’t really hurt the business relationship between the two countries. Soundbite – Abdel-Raouf Arnaout, Jerusalem Bureau Chief, The Anadolu AgencyIsraeli relations and you know, after the establishment of Israel, Turkey was the first Muslim country who recognized Israel and this was another importantthing but then after, you know, after the flotilla crisis you know, when ninepeople has been killed by the forces of the Israelis, for the Turkey it was dramatic, you know, the perception Israel as the change it immensely, not Anti-Semitic but on the other rate the people are really upset because the Turkey and Israeli relations during the time after the flotilla 30% rate of the commercial volume increased and almost 4 billion dollars, in comparison these kind of trade
Turkey doesn’t even have with neighboring Syria or Iraq. So you can imagine that this kind of good commercial relations is very important so now the building of the reconciliation relations is very crucial and we are waiting for Israel withthat stuff.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
As the pages if history were visited at the conference a clear message arose from all speakers: the current strain in the relationship between the Turks and the Jews should be taken with a grain of salt as a new page of good relations between the two is just around the corner.
For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn at Bar Ilan University.
As the world remembers the end of World War II, sixty-nine years ago, we came to the Ghetto Fighters Museum to learn about the little survivors of the Holocaust, the around 150-thousand children who survived and started a new life in Israel.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
As the world remembers the end of World War Two, sixty-nine years ago, we came to the Ghetto Fighters Museum to learn about the little survivors of the Holocaust, the around 150-thousand children who survived and started a new life in Israel.
The manager of the children’s holocaust museum, Yad Layeled, Anat Carmel, has come up with new ways to teach the kids of today about the atrocities by reenacting, of the now deceased survivors testimonies, through actors live in-front of the visitors at the museum.
Anat Carmel, Manager, Yad Layeled Museum:
I’m very hopeful that that we can continue to keep the memory of the holocaust alive, to teach the holocaust. We have on our website many testimonies, which we have collected for over 18-years, we created little monologues and we have actors who come and reenactment the stories. They come here next to the written testimonials or near the plaques and perform the monologues and testimonies and suddenly it all comes to live for the spectators who come to see it and it’s very unique that you put theater in a museum, in an exhibition, in the workshop and that’s how we in cooperate the actors on the tour.
Telling the story to the future generations has become her life’s mission says Madene Shachar, who is one of the educators at the Museum.
Madene Shachar, Educator, The Ghetto Fighters Museum:
The idea that the gallery that we’re standing in right now is to present stories of Jewish children that survived the holocaust and the twist that you’re talking about is actually looking at the children the day after World War II ends, after the liberation everyone has this feeling that; OK now everything is going to go back to being ok and suddenly we realize many many children were orphaned, children that went into hiding that didn’t know where their families were, and many children didn’t even know their own identity. And so we try to deal with that subject through the prism of children’s homes that were created immediately after the war. From what we know, we’re talking about 150,000–200,000 children that survived after the war and found some sort of a home after. I think the biggest shock, and we hear this from many survivors that were young, is that they discovered that they didn’t have a family anymore and I think that during the holocaust, children will be children, and they had this hope that they would find their parents, they would find their families again and after the war, when they looked for their homes and their families they discovered that actually they’ve been left orphaned. So everything here actually documents, in an authentic way, what happened so it’s really hard for deniers to say well this didn’t happen when you have the actual facts, figures and photographs and documents.
The eternal optimist, Dorka Sternberg, who herself survived the Holocaust as a young teen; want to believe that the world will not the let memory of all the victims fade away.
Dorka Sternberg, 86-year-old Child Holocaust survivor:
I think that the memory of our story will continue, not the same as in a first-person form where you talk about yourself, but I think that our stories will continue to be told, perhaps in a different way and all this in order to be able to warn, in order for us to build a society made up of good people.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
And as the survivors pass away it is crucial that exhibits like this will continue to teach the new generations about the atrocities of Nazi’s so that something as vicious as the Holocaust will never happen again.
For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn at Kibbutz Lochami Hagetaot in Northern Israel.
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.
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.
