From the Gaza Envelope to Eurovision.
ONLINE
MONDAYS, 12-1:30pm (ET) Dec. 7, 14; Jan. 4, 11
Every day I'm losing my mind
Holding on in this mysterious ride
Dancing in the storm,
I got nothing to hide
Take it all and leave the world behind
Baby, promise me
you'll hold me again
I'm still broken from this hurricane
– Eden Golan, Hurricane, Israel Eurovision 2024
Course Description:
When a country is broken open, where does it put the grief and the rage, and how does it find its way back to hope? For Israel after October 7th, a lot of the answer showed up in music, from Yom HaZikaron ceremonies to Eurovision and everything in between. Artists wrote in almost real time, and those songs became a kind of record of how a whole society was processing something unbearable. Each session follows the emotional arc from shock to defiance to hope, using the tracks themselves as the way in, with context and conversation around them. You'll leave with something the news can't give you: a feel for how a people sings its way through the worst.
This course is presented in affiliation with Sababoosh, bringing Israeli pop culture to communities in the Diaspora. 
MONDAYS, 12 - 1:30 pm (ET)
Jake Gillis is the creator of Sababoosh, a platform dedicated to decoding Israeli culture for global Jewish audiences.
A Pittsburgh native and University of Pittsburgh graduate (with a semester abroad at Hebrew University), Jake made aliyah seven years ago and has spent the years since trying to understand Israeli society not through headlines, but through its music, television, humor, and everyday life. What began as a personal obsession became a podcast, a series of live programs, and a growing community of people who want a more textured, human connection to Israel.
