Israel Story

Don’t Mess With a Missionary Man

Israel Story, Episode 4: When a hobby becomes a calling—from a freelance hitman in Eilat to a Knesset groupie in Herzliya

November 24, 2014
Hitman "Yoram" on a mission. (Photo by Daniel Estrin)
Hitman “Yoram” on a mission. (Photo by Daniel Estrin)


Visitors to Israel—or at least Jerusalem, or, OK, the Old City in Jerusalem—can reasonably expect to bump into a missionary or two. Chances are, though, those missionaries hail from elsewhere. In this, our fourth episode of Israel Story, called “A Man on a Mission,” we introduce three Israelis who are not religious but have pursued unusual hobbies with missionary zeal. One is a hitman-for-hire, another collects a highly specific classification of autographs, and the third is a professional whistler. This has earned them, variously, animus, accolades, and celebrity in far-flung places (here’s the video to prove it, about three and a half minutes in). Listen to the full episode here, or download from iTunes. (You can find all episodes of Sipur Israeli, the Hebrew version of Israel Story, here, and all our English-language episodes here.)

Prologue: Got a Place To Go Tonight?

Act 1: Mr. Female Members of Knesset

Act 2: Birds of a Feather

Act 3: Whistle-Stop Tour

Israel Story, the English-language version of the popular Israeli radio program Sipur Israeli, is distributed by PRX and produced in partnership with Tablet.

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