Israeli society is not divided by a single line, but shaped by multiple overlapping tensions. This series explores several of the most significant fault lines that continue to influence Israeli identity, politics, and cultural life, and concludes by examining how these tensions shape Israel’s present challenges and future possibilities. Rather than beginning with headlines or ideological arguments, we begin with culture.
Through music, poetry, film, and popular media, each session combines historical grounding with cultural expression. Participants encounter the past that explains the present, connect deeply with Israeli cultural creativity, and engage in honest conversations about identity, belonging, and responsibility.
Exploring politics, and how identity and tensions in modern Israel society, as well as future pathways, are shaped by history and culture – including expression through music, poetry, film and popular media.
Session I
East and West: The Mizrahi Ashkenazi Divide
This session explores the ethnic and cultural hierarchy that emerged in the early decades of the state. We will examine the absorption policies of the 1950s, the dominance of European Zionist elites, and the long struggle of Jews from Middle Eastern and North African backgrounds for recognition and dignity.
Through protest movements, political transformation, and especially Israeli music — from marginalized voices to mainstream influence — we will explore how culture became both a battlefield and a bridge.
Session II
Religious and Secular: Competing Visions of Zionism
Early Zionism was largely secular and revolutionary in spirit, seeking to create a new Hebrew identity. Religious Zionism was initially a minority partner within a predominantly secular national leadership. After 1967 and the rise of the settlement movement, however, it began reshaping the national narrative and redefining the relationship between faith, land, and sovereignty.
Through songs written after the Yom Kippur War, cultural responses to 1967, and contemporary debates about democracy and state power, we will examine how different communities imagine the purpose of the Jewish state — and what happens when religion and nationalism become intertwined.
Session III
Jewish and Arab: Shared Land, Conflicting Narratives
This session addresses one of the most complex and painful tensions within and around Israel.
We will explore competing national stories, the lived experience of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the cultural spaces where encounter and friction coexist. Through literature and media, we will ask how two peoples narrate the same land differently — and what culture reveals that political discourse often obscures.
Session IV
Israel Today: Democracy, Boundaries, and the Future
The final session turns from the historical fault lines we explored to the pressing questions shaping Israel today. Building on the social, religious, and national tensions discussed in the previous sessions, we will examine several contemporary challenges facing Israeli society.
Topics will include the presence of anti-Zionist currents within parts of the Haredi community and the questions this raises about citizenship and shared responsibility; the ongoing struggle to strengthen democratic norms and institutions in a deeply divided society; and the continuing debate over Israel’s borders, security, and regional future.
Alongside these tensions, the session will also highlight the social, civic, and cultural forces that continue to generate hope within Israeli society. Through cultural voices and public debate, we will ask what kind of society Israelis are trying to build, and what possibilities still exist for a shared future.
About the Facilitator
Lior Lekner serves as the Brooklyn Community Shlicha of the Jewish Agency for Israel. She holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Biblical Studies, and brings years of experience in informal Jewish education, cultural programming, and public dialogue around Israeli identity. She previously facilitated educational initiatives at the Shitim Institute, connecting Jewish historical consciousness to contemporary Zionist thought.
Rooted in a liberal humanistic perspective, her work engages complexity rather than avoiding it, fostering connection grounded in depth, historical awareness, and moral responsibility rather than slogans.