15: Love, Revisited

15: Love, Revisited

Author: Israel Story February 17, 2016 Duration: 45:47

Three couples look back at their time together—on a kibbutz, in verse, and in a hospital.

The stories in today’s episode come from our most recent live show, “Israel in Love.” We’ll meet three couples looking back at their love affairs from very different vantage points.

Zvi and Regina Steinitz’s romance has been going on the longest—in fact, it’s been going on since the very birth of the state of Israel. Danna Harman shares their story in Act I, “Like A Stone.”

Act II, “There’s a Wall Between Us,” began as a radio piece called “Checkpoints and Secrets,” by Daniel Estrin, which aired in last year’s Valentine’s Day special. Daniel’s piece followed the winding love affair of two men, an Israeli Jew from Jerusalem and a Palestinian Muslim from the West Bank, as it unfolded over a long time. We then gave Daniel’s original recordings, so the actual words the two men had told him, over to composer Or Matias — the Musical Director of the electro-pop opera “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” which will go up on Broadway this coming fall. Or, in turn, adapted the piece into a mini-musical, with entirely original music, performed here by Alaa Daka and Eyal Sherf, with Mike Cohen on flute, Dillon Condor on guitar and mandolin, and Dan Weiner on percussion.

Our final story, “When Time Will Fold Over,” takes place in a tiny village, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, called Mevo Modi’im. The 254 people who live there look like a cross between the Lubavitch Rebbe and Jerry Garcia. This is the story of two of them, Michael and Leah Golomb, and their 37-year marriage. It is an updated version of a piece that we aired exactly a year ago, and is produced by Benny Becker and Yochai Maital, with original music by Collin Oldham.

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Hosted by Mishy Harman, Israel Story is an award-winning weekly podcast that moves beyond headlines to explore the nuanced, surprising, and deeply human realities of life. Each episode is built around true, meticulously crafted narratives about ordinary people, revealing the complex tapestry of Israeli society in ways that news reports rarely capture. These are extraordinary tales found in everyday moments-a portrait of a community, a personal dilemma, or a forgotten piece of history, all told with empathy and a journalist's eye for detail. The podcast, produced in partnership with The Jerusalem Foundation and The Times of Israel, offers an intimate auditory experience that connects listeners to the spiritual, religious, and cultural heartbeat of a place through the voices of those who live there. It’s a listening journey that challenges preconceptions and illuminates shared humanity. For Hebrew episodes, you can find them under סיפור ישראלי.
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