Episode 6

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

  • 56:52
  • 2015
Tales of love, romance, and the pursuit thereof.
What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Valentine’s Day is not native to Israel, but the country does not lack tales of love, romance, and the pursuit thereof. In this, our sixth and final episode of Israel Story’s first season, we bring you stories of love and all the ways it’s got to do, got to do with it.

Prologue: What Does Love Sound Like?

Bari Finkel

What does love sound like? Bari Finkel hit the streets of Tel Aviv to see what people think. Also, we check-in on the state of Valentine’s Day in Israel.

Act I: The Queen Rania Tree

Shoshi Shmuluvitz

Ghazi Albuliwi’s father was lying in the hospital close to death when he made a request of his Palestinian-Brooklynite son: find a wife.  So, Ghazi went to the West Bank with hopes of finding a bride as pretty as Jordan’s Queen Rania.

TLV1’s Shoshi Shmuluvitz brings us the wild saga of Ghazi’s search for love in the Tulkarem Refugee Camp.

Act II: Michael and Leah

Benny Becker

Michael and Leah have been together for 37 years, living in a counter-cultural religious community that follows the teachings of “The Singing Rabbi,” Shlomo Carlebach. The couple reflect back on their time together, and take a look forward at the future’s uncertainties.

Act III: It’s Been Six Dates

Mishy Harman

Mishy Harman shares the zany matchmaking adventures of his Orthodox downstairs neighbor, which he had no chance but to overhear because all her dates took place on their staircase, just outside his bedroom window.

Act IV: Checkpoints & Secrets

Daniel Estrin

Two men– one Israeli and one Palestinian– fall in love. Daniel Estrin brings us the emotional story of how they navigate the boundaries that are intended to keep them apart.

Israel Moment

Elia Einhorn

Elia Einhorn took a bunch of recordings while traveling in Israel and mixed them together to make this masterful, extended Israel Moment.

The piece includes:

  • A Ramallah mosque’s first light call to prayer with roosters crowing
  • Tristram’s Starling song- guide and tourists on Masada
  • Pilgrims from Singapore singing a hymn at the Jordan River at the spot where John baptized Jesus
  • A strong wind blowing through a tented Palestinian roadside fruit stand
  • People celebrating a bar mitzvah at Masada’s synagogue
  • Church Of The Holy Sepulchre bells ringing in the Christian Quarter of The Old City of Jerusalem
  • A Kabbalist in a Safed synagogue explaining Kabbalah
  • As the candles are lit, customer and staff spontaneously sing prayers on Chanukah in a restaurant in Jerusalem’s Cinema City. Radio plays in the background
  • Traffic and distant church bells in downtown Ramallah, around Christmas time

Credits

For help on today’s episode, thanks to Ethan Pransky, Jeremy Schreier, Ravit Sheffer, Julie Danan, Tomas Grana, Daniel Estrin, Nava Winkler, Norman Gililand, Paul Ruest, Mitra Kaboli, Tiffany Roberts, Lev Keret who generously volunteered his room, and of course to Goldie the geriatric goldfish, who passed away a day after this episode aired. May he rest in peace in fish heaven. As always to Charles Monroe-Kane, Caryl Owen, Steve Paulson, Anne Strainchamps and all the team at TTBOOK. Our executive producer is Julie Subrin and a huge thanks to the rest of the gang at Tablet. Israel Story is produced by Mishy Harman, Yochai Maital, Roee Gilron and Shai Satran.