Lights. Camera. Action!

Cinema offers a valuable text from which to gain an understanding of the social, political and cultural realities of a society. Movies provide a powerful lens, a window on the past and present, an opportunity for historical and contemporaneous examination.

In Part I, we will look at a changing and evolving Israel by analyzing select mainstream narrative films beginning with the first feature-length movies.

In Part II, we will examine current films and study several of the television dramas that are being streamed across the globe.

By studying these, we gain entrée into the changing sensibilities of the Israeli, affected by events of the day.

The changes in Israeli music over the country’s short history illuminate significant historical and social developments.  While during Israel’s first few decades its music represented the European tastes of its founders who defined “ Israeliness,” by the 1970s this cultural legacy began to be challenged by Mizrahim  (Jews of Middle Eastern/North African background) and other marginalized groups.  We will explore various forms of Israeli music (e.g. Songs of the Land of Israel, Israeli rock, Mizrahi pop, Arab pop, religious rock, etc.) as a unique political and cultural lens for the study of Israeli identity over the past several decades.