Israel Story

Mixtape Part I: Our Hope?

We begin a four-part musical journey through anthems, songs of yearning, of war, and of peace, and hear the stories behind some of Israel’s most iconic tunes. In the first part of the miniseries—the national anthem.

May 25, 2018

When it comes to Israel, everything is complicated. Politics are complicated, religion is complicated, democracy is complicated, the conflict is complicated. Even the complications are complicated. These are the things that make us shout, and cry, that fill us with hope or plunge us into utter despair. But there is (seemingly) one island within Israeli society that escapes complexity, one thing that brings us together more than it divides us: Israeli music. Or so, at least, we thought.

In this four-part miniseries, Mixtape, Israel Story sets out to explore Israeli society through the stories behind some of the country’s most iconic tunes.

In the prologue, “Unicorns and Singalongs Underneath the Sky,” host Mishy Harman talks to Mitch Cohen, the international director of Ramah Camps, and author David Grossman, the winner of the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, to understand what is so unifying about Israeli music. He then checks out their theories with David Broza, who discusses his 1991 hit song “Mitachat La’Shamayim” (Under the Sky).

Act 1: “Hatikvah.” There is one song that has accompanied Israel from the very start. It is sung at school ceremonies, state affairs, sports events, and military marches. But that song doesn’t mention God, the Bible, or any triumph of modern Israeli history. Zev Levi takes us on a journey to the origins of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, and examines who it represents, and—importantly—who it leaves out. Yochai Maital edited this story.

The original music in this miniseries was composed, arranged and performed by the Mixtape Band, led by Ari Wenig and Dotan Moshanov, together with Ruth Danon, Eden Djamchid, and Ronnie Wagner-Schmidt. The final song is a 1950s Tunisian rendition of “Hatikvah” sung by M. Cohen. The episode was recorded by Russell Castiglione and Josh Piel at the Dubway Studios in New York, and mixed by Sela Waisblum. It is based on Israel Story’s latest live show tour, “Mixtape.” Thanks to Rabbi Joy Levitt, Sheila Lambert, Megan Whitman, Amanda Crater, Matt Temkin, Megan England, Sam Brunswick and Philip Sandstrom of the JCC Manhattan; to Robin Mancoll, Art and Annie Sandler, Naty Horev, Melissa Eichelbaum, Gregg Damanti, and all the folks at the Virginia Arts Festival and the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater; and to Ben Murane, Lily Shaddick, and Leah Breslow of the New Israel Fund Canada, alongside Peter Fehlhaber, Lynn and Aubrey Kauffman, Elisa and Gil Palter, Hanock Piven, Igor Beregovsky, Naomi Schneider, Ali Ottman, Rachel Misrati, Izi Mann, Guy Arieli, and Ilan Ben-Zion.

Listen to the full episode here, or download a longer version from iTunes. You can hear all of Israel Story’s episodes in English here and in Hebrew here.

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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