Israel Story or Sipur Israeli is an Israeli radio show and podcast. Israel Story produces episodes in both English and Hebrew. The Hebrew show, which began production in 2013, is broadcast on Galei Tzahal, Israel's national Army Radio station. The English version, which began production in 2014, is distributed by Public Radio Exchange as a bi-weekly podcast. Israel Story partnered with Tablet magazine to distribute its first season of English episodes.
Concept
Hosted by Mishy Harman, Israel Story airs long-form nonfiction content about the people of Israel. The show was originally inspired by This American Life, and episodes are structured similarly—each has a theme and several stories that connect to that theme.
History
During a 20,000-kilometer road trip across the United States, host Mishy Harman was introduced to the popular radio show, This American Life hosted by Ira Glass. Harman soon became addicted to the show's compelling human-interest stories. When Harman returned home to Jerusalem after the road trip, he convinced three childhood friends to join him in creating an Israeli podcast based on This American Life’s style of storytelling. On 19 July 2013, the Israel Story team released its first episode. Initially, they hoped to just make a few shows for friends and family to enjoy. They then made a show about House of Pancakes, a famous 24-hour pancake restaurant in Israel, which went viral and they reached a critical mass of listeners. The show caught the ear of Army Radio station head Yaron Deckel, who decided to give them a regular, Friday afternoon broadcast slot. Each of the first season's eleven episodes reached an audience of hundreds of thousands of Israelis. In 2014, Israel Story expanded into English, releasing its first English episode, "Faking It" on 18 August 2014 in partnership with Tablet magazine.
Creators
Four childhood friends who grew up together in the Masorti youth movement, "No'am", created the show.
Ro'ee Gilron, a graduate of Brandeis University, co-founded a technology start up with Harman. After working at a NASA Lab conducting experiments in zero gravity environments, he returned to Israel to begin his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.
Yochai Maital was a captain in an elite combat unit of the Israeli Army for eight years. Yochai has built multiple eco-houses and co-founded Tel Aviv’s first organic food Co-Op.
Collaborations and rebroadcasts
Pieces produced by Israel Story have been heard on NPR stations across the US, including as the Mother's Day special on WNYC, and on nationally syndicated shows like Snap Judgment, To the Best of Our Knowledge and 99% Invisible. Collaborations include writers and authors such as Etgar Keret, Sayed Kashua, Jonathan Goldstein, David Eagleman, and Matti Friedman.
Live shows
Multiple times a year, the Israel Story team produces and performs live storytelling events around the United States and Israel. They've performed in New York, Las Vegas, San Diego, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami. In a combination of radio-style storytelling, live collage animation, music, singing, video, and other multimedia, Israel Story tells the stories of Israelis from all over the country. In "Herzl 48", Israel Story brings together the stories of Israelis who have one, completely random, thing in common: they all live at 48 Herzl Street—the most common and highly symbolic of all Israeli addresses. Over several months, Israel Story visited all fifty-four Herzl Streets in Israel. Herzl 48 is a live presentation of these stories and has been performed across the United States and Israel. In May 2016, Israel Story returned to the United States with its new live show, "68 and Counting" in celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence day. Israel Story delved into archives to find tales of events that all took place on Independence day from 1948 all the way through 2016, including stories from extravagant military parades, monumental basketball games, mind-bending bible trivia, and much more. In November 2016 Israel Story will be back in the states with a brand new live show.
Reception
Israel Story was recognized as one of the ‘Top 10 Podcast Episodes of 2014,’ for “Love Syndrome” and was awarded the Best Podcast Concept at IDC Herzliyya’s FM+ Radio Conference.
Donors
's Righteous Persons Foundation offered funding as part of its Media Fund for Coexistence, which supports projects that leverage media and technology to highlight people's shared humanity.
