A Confluence of Cultures

The development of the Israeli culture may be associated with the development of the immigration to it from different countries with different cultural backgrounds. In the first years of colonization of Israel, the main influences on the culture in the settlements were mainly from the Shtetls (Jewish towns) from which most of the immigrants came. The culture of France and Germany also had an impact, becoming more popular after a lot of contributions were made by the Jewish French philanthropist Baron Edmond James de Rothschild.

The Russian culture had an undeniable poetical, musical and theatrical effect until the 1950s. Poets such as Rachel Bluwstein, Nathan Alterman, Leah Goldberg and Alexander Penn; theater people such as Hanna Rovina, or Shimon Finkel; and musicians such as Sasha Argov expressed this in a very prominent way. The "Habima Theatre" which was originally created in Russia immigrated to Israel and habitated theater mainly influenced by the Russian and Yiddish culture.

Israeli culture is heterogeneous, dynamic, and very hard to define. Considerable parts of the secular cultural creations is situated in the Tel Aviv area, although many of the official cultural institutions are situated in Jerusalem. But without a doubt, most of the Israeli culture occurs in these areas, with emphasis on Tel Aviv. Due to population composed from immigrants of five continents and more than 100 different countries, and due to significant subcultures like the Palestinians, the Russians and the Orthodox, that every one of them encounters about a million people and holds independent communities, including their own newspapers and networks in which they distribute their own products of culture, the Israeli culture is exquisite in its richness and wide variety.
Nowadays the Israeli government supports the arts less and less. The amount of financial support is lower than what is average in most western countries and less than half percent arrives from the country's budget. Israel's Philharmonic Orchestra have concerts throughout the country and occasionally plays abroad too. The Israeli broadcasting authority orchestra performs concerts throughout the world as well. To the local authorities there are many little orchestras, which their players arrive usually from the former Soviet Union. Israel is known world wide in the greatness of its modern dance, with bands like Batsheva and Batdor which perform around the world.

Theatre
Habima Theatre, Cameri Theater, Beit Lessin Theater, Gesher Theater (which performs in Hebrew and in Russian), Haifa Theater and the Beersheba Theater are considered to be the most important in Israel. The repertoire of their shows cover a variety of appearance of classic and modern drama, and likewise from plays of Israeli playwrights. The national theater is the Habima Theatre, which was founded in 1917.

Art
Colonies of artists are situated in Safed, Jaffa and in Ein Hod, but are considered less attractive nowadays. Israeli painters and sculptures sell their works throughout the world. In the cities Tel Aviv, Herzlia and Jerusalem there are art museums, and in many towns and kibbutzim there are smaller museums. The Israel Museum of art in Jerusalem consists of the Dead Sea scrolls and a comprehensive collection of Jewish religious art and popular art.

Newspapers
Israelis are avid newspaper readers. The main newspapers are in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English. There are smaller newspapers in French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian and German. Likewise there are many local newspapers in many towns and culture magazines.
Since the 1980s a well developed Alternative Israeli Culture has developed in Israel, in the fields of music, dance, comics, poetry, art etc.

Music
Israeli music is very versatile and combines elements of both western and eastern music. It tends to be very eclectic and contains a wide variety of influences from the Diaspora and more modern cultural importation: Hassidic songs, Asian and Arab pop, especially by Yemenite singers, and israeli hip hop or heavy metal.
Israel is also home to several world-class classical music ensembles such as the Israel Philharmonic, the New Israeli Opera and others.
Also popular are forms of electronic music, including but not limited to trance, hard-trance and goa-trance. Notable artists from Israel popular in this field are limited but a famous example would be the goa-trance duo Infected Mushroom

Dance
The traditional folk dance of Israel is the Hora, originally an Eastern European circle dance. Israeli folk dancing today is choreographed for recreational as well as performance dance groups.
The Palestinian population's folk dance is the Dabke, a dance of community, often performed at weddings and other joyous occasions, with various versions in different villages and cities.
Modern dance in Israel is a flourishing field, and several Israeli choreographers such as Ohad Naharin are considered to be among the most versatile and original international creators working today. Famous Israeli companies include the Batsheva Dance Company and the Bat-Dor Dance Company.
People come from all over Israel and many other nations for the annual dance festival in Karmiel, usually scheduled in July. First held in 1988, the Karmiel Dance Festival is the largest celebration of dance in Israel, featuring three or four days and nights of dancing with 5,000 or more dancers and a quarter of a million spectators in the capital of the Galilee. Begun as an Israeli folk dance event, the festivities now include performances, workshops, and open dance sessions for a variety of dance forms and nationalities.
Choreographer Yonatan Karmon created the Karmiel Dance Festival to continue the tradition of Gurit Kadman’s Dalia Festival of Israeli dance, which ended in the 1960s.