Israeli culture

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Israel's culture is inextricably linked with Jewish culture . The State of Israel , founded on May 14, 1948, is significantly influenced by these much older cultural traditions due to its Jewish majority. The following article deals only with cultural aspects of the modern State of Israel, despite the close connection.

General overview

Today's population of Israel comes from more than 100 countries on 5 continents. As a result, Israeli society is rich in cultural diversity and artistic creativity. In the country, artists find good framework conditions and are also supported by the government.

Music plays a major role. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs across the country and also frequently travels abroad for concert tours. The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra , the Israel Radio Orchestra and other ensembles also go on concert tours. Almost every community has a chamber orchestra or ensemble. Many musicians came from the states of the former Soviet Union only in the last few years.

Of great importance is the folk dance , which benefits from the cultural heritage of many immigrant groups. Israel has several professional ballet and modern dance companies. There is great interest in the theater; the repertoire includes the full range of classical and contemporary drama in translations, as well as plays by local authors. Ha-Bimah , one of the three most important theater companies, was founded in Moscow in 1917 and has been in Tel Aviv since 1931.

Many artists are based in Israel; active artist colonies exist in Safed , Jaffa and En Hod . Israeli painters and sculptors exhibit their works worldwide and sell them on the international market.

Israel's museum landscape is remarkably diverse. Haifa , Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have well-known art museums, and many cities and kibbutzim have a large number of smaller museums devoted to a wide range of topics, for example the house of the ghetto fighters in kibbutz Lochamej HaGeta'ot . The most famous museums include the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran and an extensive collection of Jewish religious and folk art, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and the Diaspora Museum on the campus of Tel Aviv University .

Israel's newspaper market is very diverse . Israelis are seen as keen newspaper readers; in total, an average circulation of 600,000 pieces is achieved. The main daily newspapers appear in Hebrew , but newspapers are also available in many other languages, including Arabic , English , Polish , French , Yiddish , Russian , Hungarian and German .

literature

Israeli literature is now written in Yiddish , English, New Hebrew , Russian, and Arabic . The Hebrew Book Week takes place every June and the Sapir Prize is awarded. Some prose authors are also known in the German-speaking area: Amos Oz , David Grossman and Zeruya Shalev . Well known in the field of poetry are Jehuda Amichai (†), Nathan Alterman (†) and Rachel .

sculpture

Many sculptors are based in Israel's artist colonies in particular. Well-known artists are:

music

The Israeli music is very versatile; it combines elements of western and eastern music. There is a noticeable tendency to mix different styles, influences from the diaspora and newer musical styles such as Hasidic songs, Asian and Arabic pop music , hip-hop or heavy metal .

Folk music

Israeli folk music is often referred to in Hebrew as Shirei eretz Yisra'el ha-yafa (שירי ארץ ישראל היפה - "songs of the beautiful land of Israel"). Folk songs are mainly sung in public or on social occasions. Some are children's songs , others combine European folk tunes with Hebrew texts. Still others are derived from military music or were written by poets such as Naomi Schemer and Chaim Nachman Bialik . These songs often refer to Zionist ideas and deal with the building of the new Israeli state. The pace and content vary considerably. Some songs reflect left or right political attitudes, others are, for example, love songs or lullabies . In songs that are sung in the kibbutz , socialism also appears as a theme. Patriotic songs are also common; they were mostly written during the Middle East wars in which Israel was involved.

Well-known singers are:

Classical music

Israel is known for its classical orchestras. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in particular, under the direction of Zubin Mehta, has achieved worldwide fame.

Since Israel is a Holy Land for Christians , it is also home to many churches and sacred music of all kinds, including Gregorian chant .

Well-known artists are:

skirt

Israeli rock music has been the dominant musical culture in Israel since the early 1980s. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that music prizes from Israeli media, such as the award “best” singer, are mostly given to artists whose careers are associated with Israeli rock. Well-known Israeli rock musicians are Arik Einstein , Yehuda Poliker , Shalom Hanoch and Shlomo Artzi .

Well-known bands:

"Soft Rock" musicians:

pop

Metal and alternative rock

Since the 1980s, Israel has had an active underground scene of alternative artists playing death metal , doom metal , punk and gothic rock . Best known are the bands Salem and Orphaned Land; both combine metal and oriental elements with heavy guitar riffs and lyrics that focus on Israeli themes, the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict . The cross-fading of oriental Jewish music and Doom Metal is called Oriental Metal .

Bands:

Ethnic music

  • The young musician Idan Raichel cultivates a special mix of styles . In his combo "HaProjekt schel Idan Raichel" (German: "Idan Raichels Projekt") he invites artists with Israeli, Arab and above all Ethiopian-African roots; his pieces of music combine elements of these cultures. The well-known Israeli singer Shoshana Damari even gave a guest appearance on his current CD and the Open Air Tour in summer 2005 .

Oriental music

Mediterranean music, called "Misrachit" מיזרחית ("Oriental") in Hebrew, is an oriental style of music that is particularly popular with the oriental Jews ( Mizrahim ) who came to Israel from Arab countries. This style is characterized by a modernized adaptation of Arabic music and the San Remo style , which uses traditional instruments such as the oud , but also uses violins and electronic musical instruments. Especially the singing of this style is known ( Silsulim ).

Representative:

Until the 1980s, this music was an underground style and not accepted by the dominant Europe-oriented elite ( Ashkenazim ). The big breakthrough came from Zohar Argov. After that, the music became popular.

Hip hop

Subliminal & the Shadow (Kobi Shimoni and Yossi Eliasi), also SHI 360 are considered the most famous Israeli hip-hop artists. They remained popular despite being rejected by many. Further representatives of this music are the Israeli Arab NWR and politically left-wing artists such as Hadag Nahash and Muki .

Psychedelic trance

Israel is currently one of the most important countries of origin of the so-called Goa trance . This style of electronic music is so popular in Israel that psytrance music can be found in the radio charts of European stations. The psytrance music produced in Israel is so characteristic that it is often referred to as "isratrance".

Internationally known artists (selection) are:

Poetry, film and theater

Lyric poet

Movie scene

The formerly provincial Israeli film industry has been recognized worldwide since the early 2000s. The German-Israeli fictional film Liebesleben ( Hebrew חיי אהבה) from 2007 Maria Schrader received several regional film awards and is based on the bestseller of the same name by Zeruya Shalev . The most important film award is the Ophir Award . There is now also a regional porn production .

filmmakers

Playwrights

actor

Cabaret artists, satirists

Librarianship

The early Israeli library system emerged from the Jewish National and University Library (JNUL), founded in 1892 , which was the only training facility for librarians until the 1930s. Only then were other library schools formed, but JNUL was able to maintain its position as one of the first training institutions for librarians through other approaches, particularly in subject indexing. The prevailing multilingualism due to immigration of Jews from Europe and around the world resulted in two official languages: Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew as the new or reintroduced national language for all Jews living in Israel and Arabic for the Palestinians. In addition, there is English as the language of the former colonizers, the British, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, more and more Russian due to immigrants from the CIS. The use of an artificial number language instead of a natural language made subject cataloging easier and was an ideal solution for opening up multilingual literature collections and making them accessible to library users. The University Library of Haifa was the first to decide, for reasons of work and costs, to use the existing keywords of the Library of Congress (LoC) , which subsequently joined other university libraries with which the Jewish National and University Library is connected.

The library system in Israel developed increasingly under the immigration of German book experts after 1933. The first director of the Jewish National and University Library was Hugo Shmuel Bergmann , who previously worked at the German-speaking Charles University in Prague. Bergmann built up the collections accordingly and hired specialists for the individual areas. He was able to win the young Gershom Scholem for the Hebraica collection . The second director was also a German, Gotthold Weil, who lost his position in the Prussian State Library in Berlin. From 1949, Curt Wormann, also from Germany, took over the position . He had a lasting impact on the Israeli library system , but was criticized for reacting too inflexibly to the needs of new immigrants and the demands of mass immigration after the establishment of the state. However, a distinction should be made between the individual libraries and their purpose. With regard to Tel Aviv's public libraries, this may be true, but the national and university libraries had to follow the international scientific standard. One of the most prominent librarians of the JNUL from 1940 to 1964 was Felix Weltsch , a close friend of Wormann, Bergmann and Kafkas from Prague. He worked in the catalog, advised the JNUL on acquisitions, the decimal system and the training of librarians. A legal deposit law existed since 1953, which was renewed in 2001. The old regulation only applied to books, magazines and newspapers; but now also on CDs, videos, audio cassettes, etc. Network resources are still excluded. The Legal Deposit Act stipulates delivery to a total of five institutions. These are the State of Israel Archives, the Library of the Knesset , the Ministry of Education and the Jewish National and University Library (JNUL), which receives two copies. The Israeli Center for Libraries (ICL) publishes an annual catalog of registered periodicals on CD-ROM and as an online version. So far, the 4800 ISSN been awarded in Israel. The Israeli state has a dense network of libraries in large cities and in rural areas, all of which are linked by the Internet.

literature

  • Glenda Abramson: Drama and Ideology in Modern Israel. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-521-02575-3 .
  • Israel Studies. 4.1, Spring 1999 - Special Section: Films in Israeli Society.
  • Kamal Abdel-Malek: The Rhetoric of Violence: Arab-Jewish Encounters in Contemporary Palestinian Literature and Film. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
  • Amy Kronish: World cinema: Israel. Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Flicks Books [etc.], 1996.
  • Amy Kronish and Costel Safirman: Israeli film: a reference guide. Praeger, Westport, Conn. 2003.
  • Raz Yosef: Beyond flesh: queer masculinities and nationalism in Israeli cinema. Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, NJ 2004.
  • Ella Shohat: Israeli cinema: East West and the politics of representation. Univ. of Texas Pr., Austin 1989. (an updated new edition will be published by IB Tauris & Co Ltd in 2007).
  • Myra Warhaftig : You laid the foundation stone, life and work of German-speaking Jewish architects in Palestine 1918-1948. Wasmuth, Tübingen / Berlin 1996.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Miriam Geiger: Cultures in Israel - melting pot, multicultural society, path to national cultural identity? Stuttgart 2005
  2. ↑ Gisela Dachs: Israel in short , Bonn, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8389-7024-0