Photocollage: Tablet Magazine; original photo: Yochai Maital
Israel Story
The Most Israeli Address: Herzl 48
Israel Story’s first live show takes us from a phone operator in Kiryat Shmona to a Hebrew Israelite choir in Dimona
December 16, 2015
Photocollage: Tablet Magazine; original photo: Yochai Maital
There is nothing inherently special about the people who live at 48 Herzl Street, an address that shows up in big cities, small outposts, and everything in between throughout Israel. But symbolically, it’s about as freighted an address as they come. Theodor Herzl was the father of modern Zionism, and there are 54 streets named after him in Israel—more than any other national figure. And 48 comes from 1948, the year the country was founded.
For their first-ever live show, which was commissioned by JCC Manhattan and has been performed before audiences across the United States and Israel, Israel Story producers crisscrossed the small country, knocking on doors at every Herzl 48 they could reach and collecting stories from whomever they encountered. Today’s episode, culled from that performance, features seven different encounters, including a butcher in Akko, a stoner in Tel Aviv, and a young couple whose very dramatic tale is told in song.
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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