Culture

Israel is a place where East meets West; where past and present touch; and where ideologies mold lifestyles. Four thousand years of Jewish heritage, a century of Zionism, the "ingathering of the exiles" and five decades of modern statehood have contributed to an Israeli culture which strives to create an identity of its own, while preserving the uniqueness of each contributing community. An immigrant society, its creative expression has absorbed many different cultural and social influences, as the traditions of each group not only contend with those of other groups, but also confront the country's recent history and life in the Middle East.

Hebrew theater, unlike literature, did not exist in ancient Hebrew culture nor did it grow out of the Yiddish theater so popular in Eastern Europe Jewish communities until World War II. It began with the founding (1917) of a Hebrew theater, Habimah ("The Stage") in Moscow, under the guidance of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky. In 1931, the company set up its permanent home in Tel Aviv, where it is based today.

The Israel Film Archive / Jerusalem Cinemateque was established in 1961 and is housed in the Jerusalem Film Center. It consists of an archive of thousands of films, a research library, viewing halls and exhibition space. The major activity of the archive is the collection, cataloguing and preservation of the best of international cinema productions, including those dealing with Jewish themes or depicting some aspect of Jewish life. The first feature films produced and directed by Israelis appeared in the early 1960's. Today about a dozen full-length films are completed each year.

Back to main contents.