All this week, I am sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the production of my new public television special, “The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today.” In this clip, we visit the the Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem.
When considering the horror of the Holocaust, it’s hard to really imagine the extermination of six million people. And it’s hard to imagine that roughly a quarter of these people, slaughtered like animals, were children. The Children’s Memorial helps make it real.
“The Holy Land” has already aired on stations in several locations. Many other stations, such as WTTW 11 in Chicago and KCTS 9 in Seattle, plan to air it soon. Call your local public television station to find out when you can see it too.
All this week, I am sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the production of my new public television special, “The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today.” In this clip, we visit Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem.
Yad Vashem is the most important Holocaust memorial in Israel. In its Hall of Names, a vast archive surrounds a powerful collection of faces of people killed during the Holocaust. Of the roughly six million Jews murdered, about half have been identified by surviving family and friends. Pages of their testimony are archived here. The purpose of it all: to give as many victims as possible, whose deaths were as ignominious as their killers could manage, the simple dignity of being remembered. With our “Holy Land” TV production, we wanted to show context for today’s tensions. And the Holocaust is certainly part of that big picture.
“The Holy Land” has already aired to great success on stations in several locations. Many other stations, such as WTTW 11 in Chicago and KCTS 9 in Seattle, are excited to air it soon. Call your local public television station to find out when you can see it too.
All this week, I am sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the production of my new public television special, “The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today.” In this clip, we sit down to our first lunch while scouting TV production in the Crusader town of Akko, Israel. We were treated to a typical and colorful array of mezze-style plates: delightful dips, soups, and salads that are a daily edible reminder of how fertile Israel is. A few months later, we were at the same table with our crew and the camera rolling. Delicious.
“The Holy Land” has already aired to great success on stations in several locations. Many other stations, such as WTTW 11 in Chicago and KCTS 9 in Seattle, are excited to air it soon. Call your local public television station to find out when you can see it too.
We’re ramping things up for our public television special, “Rick Steves’ Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today,” which is airing all over the country. I’ll be giving talks around my state (and in Dallas on Oct. 1 at the AT&T Performing Arts Center), and I enjoyed doing an interview with Dave Ross on Seattle’s KIRO Radio. I thought you might like to listen in, so here is our entire 19-minute conversation, uncut.
If you’ve seen the Holy Land show in your city, please let me know your thoughts. If your public TV station has yet to run it, please call them and ask when it’ll air. Thanks.
(By the way, you can find more of Dave Ross’s extended interviews here.)
A few months ago, after a year with lots of travel in Palestine and Israel as I scouted and filmed my upcoming TV special on the Holy Land, I gave a talk about the region in my hometown of Edmonds, Washington. I enjoyed a very enthusiastic audience — both in person, and watching the streaming lecture online. Since many were unable to attend or view my talk, by popular demand, we’ve post-produced it to offer it here on our blog page.
This was my first time giving this talk, and it was a fun challenge to deal with contentious issues in a balanced way. While this video is fairly long, it’s packed with lessons. These issues are important, and (as with my Iran project a few years ago) I am so impressed by how little most Americans — myself included, before this trip — really know about the Holy Land.
I’d love your comments on this talk…but only after you’ve actually watched it. When the topic of the Holy Land is raised, many of us just spout off our preconceived ideas. And many of these ideas we hold very strongly, even though they are a result of American media rather than actually visiting the region in person. Our challenge is to hear both narratives and understand the context of the region’s challenges and the baggage of the people who live there. I hope this talk helps do exactly that.
The TV special I produced, “Rick Steves’ Holy Land: Palestinians and Israelis Today,” will air on public television stations across the USA this fall.
(By the way, the streaming of talks like this one is a new era for us as travel teachers. In the spirit of this talk, we’ll be streaming nine hours of travel talks — five of which I’ll be giving personally — for free this Saturday, March 22nd, starting at 9:00am Pacific Time. Learn more on our Live Webcast page.Don’t miss it!)
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.