Minister of Arts and Cultures
Basmat Hazan Arnoff

When Israel turned 30 years old I was in the third grade. My teacher, a special woman with very original teaching methods, devised a project to celebrate “Independence” in which all the children's parents were invited to tell the story of their families' aliyah to Israel. The neighborhood school was public and Modern-Orthodox; we were 34 children in that class and while some were immigrants, most were sabras — even if only for a generation or two. Every Friday, parents came and told stories about the Inquisition and the city of Mashhad and the journey of Persian Jews to Israel; of the doors of the Second Temple buried under their synagogue of Djerba; of life in China (I still remember the train tickets...) where one family had been exiled during the Shoah; of Italy and South Africa and Yemen and Eastern Europe and more.

Today when I look at the cultural and artistic “map” of Israel, it becomes clear that although Jews amount to no more than a speck of the world's population, we have gathered in Israel from every corner of the earth. For several decades, Israel has been fusing generations of immigrants with children and grandchildren coming of age in a totally Israeli milieu. Now, our citizenry is comfortable enough to challenge sacred beliefs about what an Israeli identity is and also strong enough to seek out the landscape of our roots, looking for them and integrating them into cultural work as we craft our own contemporary creative and artistic dreams.

This trend of mixing old and new is emerging within every art form; perhaps most obviously in the world of music where the sounds of the broader contemporary world are being combined with wafts of traditional music from home (sounds that might have embarrassed young Israelis during their childhood and teenage years). What is occurring now is not merely a bridge back to “world” music but an intimate link with the piyyut and niggun , liturgical music composed before modern Israel existed. Throughout Israel singing communities are inviting men and women of all ages, expressions, and approaches to the Jewish faith, and from every stream in the political spectrum, to sit together and sing piyyutim .

In theater, poetry and fiction, film, and even in comics and graphic novels, Israelis are creating a contemporary dialogue as they dig for cultural roots. Artists with all of the necessary tools and techniques and knowledge for launching contemporary successes are exploring their families' and the broader Israeli cultural wells of the past. This process of merging layers of Hebrew language with diverse layers of Jewish and Hebrew culture is creating a vibrant, deep, and smart artistic language that enriches our Israeli cultural moment.

To nurture this cultural renaissance we must address the following challenges:

First, we must welcome the influences of many Israeli communities, especially those whose voices in the mainstream dialogue are often silent. This includes the most recent waves of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and from Ethiopia, as well as Bedouins and others on the fringes of Israeli society.

Second, we must provide greater resources to “laboratories” for cultural experimentation. Against the lure of popular culture, so often obsessed with sameness and “ratings,” cultural experimentation offers innovative and particularly Israeli forms of expression.

Third, we should inject “new blood” into the cultural institutions of Israel while also opening the hearts and ears of these cultural rainmakers to new trends. Too often, Israeli cultural institutions — from theater and television to newspapers and publishing houses — depend on static criteria of secular or religious, pop or highbrow, Ashkenazi or Mizrahi to define popular trends rather than reflecting the diversity that exists here.

Fourth, documenting and archiving (online) the cultural artifacts of traditional and new fusion groups is essential. Building a multilingual archive will provide valuable educational resources for generations to come, in addition to salvaging and preserving our ancestral treasures.

Finally, we must strengthen the dialogue between Israel and the larger Jewish world by creating shared artistic opportunities as well as venues and programs for mutual critique and growth. A healthy flow of performance, film, literature, and more across the world will not only reinforce the creativity within Israel but will model cooperative ventures among Jews within and outside the state. This ongoing collaboration, based loosely in text and tradition, is essential to the livelihood of art and culture making. With the tools of modern communication and technology, we can reach new heights and many more hearts.

Thirty years ago, second and third generation Israelis like me were just beginning to be exposed to the incredible diversity of cultures our parents and grandparents had brought with them to create a new society. Today, as my generation matures, and we become the gatekeepers of Israeli arts and cultures, we are uniquely charged with the responsibility of using the technologies and our tolerance of the future to integrate visions of today's Israel with the deep roots of its past.

Basmat Hazan Arnoff is the author of Mayyim Hafoochim, a novel, and works as a theater director. Her play, LeShem Yichud , won the award for best ensemble at the Akko Theater Festival. She recently adapted David Grossman's See: Under Love for the stage in Tel Aviv and New York. Translated by Stephen Hazan Arnoff.