When we think about the distinctive characteristics that explain what Israel is,

its essential and unique qualities, we should think a little more comprehensively.

After all, when Aristotle wrote about politics, he wrote about music and theater

and warfare. Understanding the soul of a nation requires more than understanding the way it orders

its laws and its governing institutions. So today, we're going to look at the transformation

of Israeli music as a window into the deeper

cultural transformations that over the last few decades have energized the nation.

What we'll see is that in the early days of Israel, the music that emerged out of the socialist

kibbutz ethos tended to be secular, like the labor Zionist governing elite at the time.

This music was written for the new Jew, formed by draining the swamps and settling the wilderness of Zion. It idealized

the new Hebrew man, unburdened by the history of the diaspora. Over time, Israeli music came to

draw on its diasporic history, not as a source of shame, but as a source of strength.

But the diaspora that influenced the nation's music was not the diaspora of Eastern or Western Europe.

It was the diaspora of Northern Africa and the Middle East, and the music that came to insert itself into the heart of Israel was played on the instruments

and sounded the tonalities and the rhythms of the Mizrahim.

This music was not secular Zionist poetry, it was fundamentally religious, and its movement

from the periphery of Israeli culture to its vital center, mirrors the same Mizrahi movement

to the center of Israeli politics that fueled the rise of Menachem Begin. The story of Israeli music

illuminates this essential transformation of Israeli society. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your

host, Jonathan Silver. My guest this week is Yossi Klein

Halevi, the author of many books. Most recently, letters to my Palestinian neighbor. He's also a senior

fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. This is Yossi's third appearance on the podcast.

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