Israel Story

77-year-old Agi Mishol is one of Israel’s most prominent, beloved and widely-read poets. Over the years she’s won practically every literary prize here, and Amos Oz once said that her poems “know how to tell a tale, to sing a song and also dance.” Her poetry is colorful and playful, full of nature and a love of the land. And that makes sense since – in addition to writing – Agi and her husband Giora are also farmers, who grow peaches, pomegranates and persimmons.

The end song is “Kalipso” by Dotan Malach.

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Today we’ll hear from Sahar Vardi, a Jewish-Israeli peace activist who lost a dear friend, Khalil Abu Yahia, in Gaza.

The end song is Tamaly Maak (“I Am With You”) by Tzachi Halevy.

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Among the thousands of people who had the terrible misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time on October 7th, there were also – as we now all know – many foreigners. People who had little, or no, connection to the long history of violence between Jews and Arabs, Israel and Hamas. Among them were Filipino caregivers, Thai agricultural workers and also a group of Nepali students who had been accepted to an 11-month-long internship at the Sedot Negev Agricultural Training Center.

The end song is Sathi by Sushant KC.

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The nature of the attacks on October 7th, together with certain subsequent reactions around the world, have blurred the lines between Jews in Israel and Jews in the diaspora. Last week, the UJA Federation of New York brought over a delegation of 28 Jewish leaders – mainly rabbis and educators – on a jam-packed 48-hour-long whirlwind of a trip to Israel. We sat down with two, very different, members of the delegation – Reform Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov – to hear what it feels like to visit Israel in the middle of a war.

The end song is Am Echad Shir Echad (“One People One Song”) by Selected Israeli Artists.

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There’s a lot of Holocaust rhetoric in the air. ‘Never Again’ slogans have resurfaced, Netanyahu has said – on several occasions – that Hamas militants are worse than the Nazis, and just this week the Israeli delegation to the UN wore yellow stars at the Security Council. All of this is, of course, controversial, and many people – including many Holocaust survivors – have different feelings on the matter.

Gidon Lev from Ramat Gan probably isn’t exactly what you imagine when you think of a Holocaust survivor. For many years he lived in Kibbutz Zikim on the Gaza border, where he milked some 200 cows a day. Nowadays, he’s a veritable TikTok celebrity, with nearly half a million followers, and – quite accurately – refers to himself as a “rascal.” When the war broke out he experienced a lot of trauma, and took shelter in Ein Gedi, on the shores of the Dead Sea.

The end song is Pachot Aval Ko’ev (“Less, But It Hurts”) by Yehuda Poliker.

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45-year-old Ido Rosenthal from Moshav Ben Shemen served in an elite commando unit and was killed on the first day of the war. His wife, Noga, a sociology doctoral student at Ben Gurion University, has since been sharing her feelings on Facebook. She gave us permission to translate and record one of her posts. 

The end song is Rikma Enoshit (“Human Tissue”) performed by Roni Dalumi.

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The war caught everyone by surprise, of course, and since it broke out at the tail end of the chagim, many Israelis were abroad. What do you do in that case? Do you rush home? Do you continue your trip? Do you wait it out somewhere safe and far away? As it happens, on October 7th, our producer Mitch Ginsburg was hiking across the Scottish Highlands with his buddy – author, journalist and friend of the show, Matti Friedman. This is their story. 

The end song is “San Francisco” by Arik Einstein.

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Many people sprung into action since October 7th. And yet, at the very same time, many Israelis feel… lost. Not everyone knows what to do, nor does everyone feel useful, capable or relevant. And that feeling resonates with Alon Shalev from Zur Hadassah. 

The end song is Avot U’Banim (“Fathers and Sons”) by Eviatar Banai.

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During normal times Tomer Oshri – a 48-year-old history teacher from Jerusalem – works at JDC-Israel and runs an educational non-profit. Nowadays, however, he’s the man in charge of building and operating 17 different makeshift schools for survivors and displaced residents of the communities around the Gaza Border.

The end song is Kol Od (“As Long As”) by Yoni Rechter.

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Even today, nearly three weeks after the devastating attacks of October 7th, there are still hundreds of people who are considered “missing,” which means that they haven’t been confirmed dead, but – at the same time – there’s no definitive proof that they’ve been kidnapped into Gaza. One of those missing is Tamar Gutman, who was at the Nova Party in Re’im. Her sister Adva Gutman Tirosh talks about the difficulties of coping with uncertainty.

This piece was produced by Yochai Maital.

The end song is Yoter Mi’zeh Anachnu Lo Tzrichim (“We Don’t Need More Than This”) by Shlomo Artzi.

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