An essay that touches all aspects of Israeli life and creative culture can only suggest directions for searching out resources. Essentially, any books on Israeli society are a potential resource. Each of the subjects discussed here will feature in any good introduction to Israeli society.

Regarding literature, any book in English translation by any of the writers mentioned here is a potential resource. Many good anthologies have been published in recent years. Try entering ‘modern Israeli stories’, ‘Hebrew literature anthologies’ or ‘Israeli literature or stories anthologies’ – or any combination of these – into a search machine on such Internet sites as Amazon.com, and see what comes up. One anthology that is easily missed -- and thus needs to be mentioned here – is the superb anthology of Sephardi/Mizrahi writing Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing edited by Ammiel Alcalay.

On the subject of cinema, start by checking on the Internet the catalogue of Ergo Films, the best resource for subtitled Israeli films. They have many titles.

For music, scout the music section in any Jewish or Israeli shop. Around 1998, a number of very good collections were put together to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the State. These are worth searching out.

There is a very good introduction to Israeli art by Gideon Ofrat One Hundred Years of Art in Israel and a number of books on aspects of other media such as architecture, sculpture, photography and so on.

Remember, you will generally need the overall surveys unless you are searching for a very specific topic. Happy hunting. If you need particular recommendations, write to us at the site and we’ll try to help.