Last week I had a problem with my credit card so I called the Visa call center in the USA.
After we resolved the problem the operator asked me "do you mind if I ask you a question?"
His question - "What's it like in Israel ?"
"How much time do we have?' was my first reply. Then I gave him the URL for this blog!
I went on to tell him that "as we speak, Paul McCartney is performing to more than 50,000 people in the park 20 minutes from where I am"
He couldn't believe it - " Paul McCartney in Israel! Wow, that's cool!"
Then I told him about enjoying the Alvin Ailey company a week earlier and the Eilat Jazz Festival just before that.
Apart from McCartney, entertainment and cultural offerings in recent weeks included Hamlet, Joseph and his Coat, Fiddler, Neil Simon, opera master classes, chamber music festivals as well as many world-class art galleries and museums.
For the coming season Mahler and Metha, opera productions featuring renowned stars, ballet and contemporary dance companies are just a sampling of the offerings.
Nightlife rivals any major metropolis - discos, clubs, pubs, bars - sometime I think there more Irish pubs here per capita than New York!
Bluegrass, Latin, Greek, Middle Eastern, Cool Jazz, Rock, Hot Metal, Rap, Bob Marley - whatever your taste, you'll find it playing somewhere in the area.
This week we have the opening concert for the new season of our local Raanana Symphonette. Our orchestra is considered one of the finest in the country - not bad for a population of 60,000!
The next evening it's the Cedar Lake dance company at the Tel Aviv Opera House.
Last season we had a performance of the world-famous Israel Philarmonic with Andras Schiff in our neighboring city of Kfar Sava (about 120,000 pop.).
The quantity, variety and quality of entertainment offered in Israel puts a lie to the myth of a population cowering behind barbed wire waiting for the next suicide bomber. That may be so in Iraq, though I doubt it. It certainly isn't the case here.
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