Preparation for the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv has elicited all manner of ideas from obscure municipality committees for potential landmarks to mark the occasion. Some have suggested putting up a carrousel, as in London, while others have enthusiastically pushed for the construction of a Hollywood Boulevard. These aesthetic proposals with little ideological significance underscore the fact that Tel Aviv is increasingly moving away from its complex ideological grounding.

By Joey Gelpe
Yoav, born in Israel, moved to California with his parents as a child. Though his first years in school were difficult, he later integrated well into American society. Yoav enjoyed Israeli youth movement activities, always dated Jewish women, and married a Jewish woman. He defines himself as “Israeli” and says that his being Jewish is not his primary identity—but only a component of his being Israeli.

By Esther Breger

By PT Staff
With the arrival of films like Someone to Run With, The Band’s Visit (see review on p. 57), and Beaufort (see review on p. 55) Israel may have only recently become known as a cinematic player by Diaspora hipsters. But a little trip through the Internet Movie Database reveals that in addition to her native-grown films, Israel has served as inspiration—and often location—for other films you may (or more likely, may not) have seen.

Goodbye New York (1985)

By Yael Twito

By Marianna Evenstein
Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret are each already highly-acclaimed in Israel and abroad—Geffen as a playwright, theater director and actress, and Keret as a fiction and screenplay author. Their transition to directing film has proven to be just as successful. The Israeli couple’s debut feature, Jellyfish, won the Camera d’Or prize at the 2007 Cannes International Film Festival for best first feature and has been enthusiastically received at numerous other film festivals around the world.