Cultural Preparation: Books and Movies
Besides the Old Testament of the Bible, there are other ways to learn about Israeli and Jewish history. This list is focusing mostly on Israel itself, because there are no end to movies and books on the Holocaust, and Jews in Russia and Germany and America. But since this blog is about traveling to Israel, that will be the focus of these lists.
Links to the Internet Movie Database will be provided for the movies. For movies that have the same titles as others (for instance, IMDB provides sixteen movies with the title 'Exodus'), I have provided the year it was produced as well, should you wish to look the movie up elsewhere.
Suggested Movies
- King David (1985)
- Ben-Hur (1959)
- Masada (TV Mini-Series)
- Kingdom of Heaven (not so good with some history, so take this with a grain of salt)
- The Gates of Jerusalem: A History of the Holy City (documentary)
- Cast a Giant Shadow
- Exodus (1960)
- O Jerusalem
- A Woman Called Golda
- Language of the Enemy (aka "A House Divided" outside of the US and Australia)
- The Band's Visit
- Don't Mess With the Zohan (...okay, I'm kidding about this one)
Suggested Books
- The Source by James Mitchener (I cannot stress enough how awesome this book is)
- Kibbutz Volunteer by John Bedford
- O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (unrelated to the aforementioned movie)
- Judaism by Isidore Epstein
- A Short History of the Hebrews by B. K. Rattey
- The Jewish Book of Why volumes one and two by Alfred J. Kolatch
- The Collected Stories of Sholom Aleichem by Sholom Aleichem
- Let's Go Israel: The Student Travel Guide (indispensable; take it with you)
- Berlitz Hebrew for Travellers (take this one too)
- 201 Hebrew Verbs by Abraham S. Halkin
- ABC: The Alef-Bet Book by Florence Cassen Mayers (or something along those lines; this is easier to learn the alphabet from than the Berlitz book--bigger print and visuals, for one thing)
- Your map of Israel that you should have bought by now. No good learning about all of this stuff if you don't know where anything is!
Those are the movies and books we own and the ones I'm watching/reading. Several of the books you will want to take with you, especially the travel guides and dictionary. Some books unlike the movies, to not relate directly to Israeli history itself, but they're good to read anyway. And of course, these are just suggestions, so feel free to pick and choose.
Traveler's Tip: See if you can find online guides to body language. Some gestures in Israel and the surrounding countries are rude there and not where you live(see above video)!
Instant Greek by William Papas is a good place to start, as some of the gestures mean the same thing (it's also completely hilarious). In fact, Masa does have a guide, so take a look if you haven't already!
Hopefully you'll have enough time in between all the packing and buying and preparing and immmunizations you're taking care of to look at a few of the things on this list. It's nice to play the tour guide sometimes; my father did when he went to Israel back in the 1970s.
That's all for this week. See you next time!
Coming Up
-Hebrew alphabet guide
-brief 'tour' of Israel as a whole, including a history lesson
Links to the Internet Movie Database will be provided for the movies. For movies that have the same titles as others (for instance, IMDB provides sixteen movies with the title 'Exodus'), I have provided the year it was produced as well, should you wish to look the movie up elsewhere.
Suggested Movies
- King David (1985)
- Ben-Hur (1959)
- Masada (TV Mini-Series)
- Kingdom of Heaven (not so good with some history, so take this with a grain of salt)
- The Gates of Jerusalem: A History of the Holy City (documentary)
- Cast a Giant Shadow
- Exodus (1960)
- O Jerusalem
- A Woman Called Golda
- Language of the Enemy (aka "A House Divided" outside of the US and Australia)
- The Band's Visit
- Don't Mess With the Zohan (...okay, I'm kidding about this one)
Suggested Books
- The Source by James Mitchener (I cannot stress enough how awesome this book is)
- Kibbutz Volunteer by John Bedford
- O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (unrelated to the aforementioned movie)
- Judaism by Isidore Epstein
- A Short History of the Hebrews by B. K. Rattey
- The Jewish Book of Why volumes one and two by Alfred J. Kolatch
- The Collected Stories of Sholom Aleichem by Sholom Aleichem
- Let's Go Israel: The Student Travel Guide (indispensable; take it with you)
- Berlitz Hebrew for Travellers (take this one too)
- 201 Hebrew Verbs by Abraham S. Halkin
- ABC: The Alef-Bet Book by Florence Cassen Mayers (or something along those lines; this is easier to learn the alphabet from than the Berlitz book--bigger print and visuals, for one thing)
- Your map of Israel that you should have bought by now. No good learning about all of this stuff if you don't know where anything is!
Those are the movies and books we own and the ones I'm watching/reading. Several of the books you will want to take with you, especially the travel guides and dictionary. Some books unlike the movies, to not relate directly to Israeli history itself, but they're good to read anyway. And of course, these are just suggestions, so feel free to pick and choose.
Click to viewTraveler's Tip: See if you can find online guides to body language. Some gestures in Israel and the surrounding countries are rude there and not where you live(see above video)!
Instant Greek by William Papas is a good place to start, as some of the gestures mean the same thing (it's also completely hilarious). In fact, Masa does have a guide, so take a look if you haven't already!
Hopefully you'll have enough time in between all the packing and buying and preparing and immmunizations you're taking care of to look at a few of the things on this list. It's nice to play the tour guide sometimes; my father did when he went to Israel back in the 1970s.
That's all for this week. See you next time!
Coming Up
-Hebrew alphabet guide
-brief 'tour' of Israel as a whole, including a history lesson