Customer Reviews

Shalom Sesame Show #4 - The People of Israel [VHS]

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My 3-year-old daughter has been hooked on these Shalom Sesame videos since the first viewing. As an adult, I am highly entertained by the skits which are hilarious (some are corny and outdated '80's humor--OK, but The Passover video had me in stitches)--quick-witted, lighthearted Jewish humor is very much part of these tapes. This particular video, The People of Israel, isn't the ha-ha funniest of the series but worthy for many other reasons. Itzhak Perlman plays violin and participates in skits. The music in this episode is a mix of the usual muppet rock/pop (dubbed in Hebrew in parts), a live band doing more traditional music (wonderfully done) and there are segments where children are singing in Hebrew, then in Arabic, back and forth with the written language subtitled underneath showing how the two languages sound and how many Israelis are bilingual (and not just Jewish but Arab too). There are children from many parts of the world in Israel and they are in the show--children from Russia, Ethiopia, India, Muslim countries and America. I was moved by how the multiethnic aspect of Israel was presented in this video and recommend this tape to any parent who wants their child to experience peace and harmony with children of various backgrounds. It's not a video to learn much Hebrew off of for beginners since there's no visual phonetic help in English but it's excellent reinforcement for children who have some other instruction in Hebrew, and it's a great tape to introduce all children to the Israeli/Jewish culture in a positive light.