Israeli and pre-state Zionist music offers a powerful lens through which we can understand the country’s cultural and political evolution, serving as both a unifying force and a reflection of Israel’s diverse society and complex history.
Dr. Eli Sperling, April 15, 2025, for CIE © Center for Israel Education, 2025 Israeli music offers a powerful lens through which we can understand the country’s cultural and political evolution, serving as both a…
In this 45-minute video recorded Jan. 11, 2023, scholars of Jewish, Zionist and Israeli art, music and culture discuss how culture not only was a fundamental part of the effort to build a safe Jewish homeland, but was for many the reason behind the modern State of Israel. Featured are Dr. Arieh Saposnik, an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Dr. Susan Nashman Fraiman, an instructor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Dr. Eli Sperling, an Israel Institute teaching fellow at the University of Georgia. Moderating the conversation is Center for Israel Education President Dr. Kenneth Stein, professor emeritus of Middle Eastern history and political science and Israel studies at Emory University. This webinar is part of CIE’s Israel@75: A Yearlong Exploration project.
Upon its inception, Zionism needed more than political and financial solutions to actualize a Jewish home in Palestine. It was necessary for the architects of the Zionist enterprise to cultivate a “new Jew” to lay…
In a July 1, 2020, session of our annual educator workshop, CIE’s Eli Sperling programs a youthful, entertaining video playlist to bring Israel’s religious, cultural and ethnic variety into the classroom.
Contemporary Israeli music has long and varied roots. It is rich and dynamically innovative. Instrumental and vocal streams reflect Jewish and Israeli history. Engage your senses in diversely eclectic flavors. Listen wherever you are—links to free online sources; stream Israeli music from many genres and eras.
By Dr. Eli Sperling Representative of a greater resurgence of Judeo-Arabic music in Israel, the piyyut movement is continuing to spread throughout religious and secular segments of Israeli culture and society. Piyyut, the Hebrew word…
Dance along as waves of Jewish immigration mix with indigenous traditions to create a unique culture reflecting a world of Jewish and non-Jewish influences across Israel’s diverse society.
Aveva Dese, an Ethiopian-Israeli singer & songwriter, is a rising star in Israel’s music scene. Many of her songs are in Amharic (official language of Ethiopia) and represent a greater trend of Israeli musicians performing in various diasporic-Jewish languages spoken by members of their families and communities.
Upon its inception, Zionism needed more than political and financial solutions to actualize a Jewish home in Palestine. The architects of the Zionist enterprise evolved a cultural identity along with state structures. Its dynamism is still evolving from the diversity of its populations’ origins. see also his excellent Development of Israeli Culture (2018).
The reactions to Hamas’ killing of 1,200 Israelis and others and abduction of more than 240 on Oct. 7 have rippled across Israeli society and left their marks on Israeli music, art and other aspects…
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