''Kol Yisrael'' or ''Kol Israel'' (, lit. "Voice of Israel"; also Israel Radio) was

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

domestic and international radio service. It operated as a division of the Israel Broadcasting Service from 1951 to 1965, and later the

Israel Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017, succeeded by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station '' Kol Yi ...

(IBA) from 1965 to 2017. Following the IBA's closure, the radio stations it used to administer are currently operated by the

Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation is the national broadcaster of Israel. It carries the blanket branding Kan in Hebrew () and Makan in Arabic (). Its news division, Kan News, is the third biggest brand in Israeli newscasting, after Ha ...

History

''Kol Yisrael'' was originally an underground

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

radio station that broadcast from

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. It started consistently broadcasting in December 1947 under the name ''Telem-Shamir-Boaz'', and was renamed to ''Kol HaHagana'' ("Voice of the Haganah") in March 1948. With Israel's

declaration of independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

on May 14, 1948, it was transformed into the official station ''Kol Yisrael''. Another station named ''Kol Yisrael'' operated in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, and was renamed ''Kol Tzva HaHagana'' ("Voice of the Defense Force"). The first ''Kol Yisrael'' transmission was a live broadcast from

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

reading of the declaration of independence. It was operated by a department of the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

responsible for domestic and international broadcasts. Responsibility for the service was later transferred to the Office of Posts and Telegraphs and then to the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

's Office. The station inherited the facilities of the former Palestine Broadcasting Service, which had been founded as the official broadcaster of the Mandate of Palestine in 1936, and had run the '' Kol Yerushalayim'' radio station. ''Kol Yisrael'' staff was made up of both former PBS personnel and former staffers at the Haganah underground radio stations. ''Kol Yisrael'' pioneered the use of FM transmission. In the early years, stations were operated in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. The PBS had had its transmitter in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

, but this transmitter was lost to Kol Yisrael due to Ramallah being in the Arab sector. In March 1950, international broadcasting began under the name ''Kol Zion La Golah'' ("The Voice of Zion to the Diaspora.") The broadcasts were produced at ''Kol Yisrael'' by the

World Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization (; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization (ZO; 1897–1960) at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the F ...

in cooperation with the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

, and aimed to foster communication between the Israeli state and the

Jewish diaspora The Jewish diaspora ( ), alternatively the dispersion ( ) or the exile ( ; ), consists of Jews who reside outside of the Land of Israel. Historically, it refers to the expansive scattering of the Israelites out of their homeland in the Southe ...

. The service broadcast readings from the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

alongside documentary programs on life in Israel. In 1958, the international service was merged with the domestic broadcaster, with both services operating under the ''Kol Yisrael'' name. Between 1958 and 1965, the "Kol Yisrael" international services expanded rapidly, inaugurating new

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

services in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

, English, French, Hungarian,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, Persian, Romanian, and

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

. Between 1960 and 1963, the service also broadcast daily programs in English, French and Swahili for African audiences and began distributing tapes for rebroadcasting across the continent. This appeal to international audiences was closely tied to Israel's Periphery doctrine, which sought to align Israel with states on the fringes of the Middle East to avoid 'encirclement' by the Arab states and counteract international support for

Palestinian nationalism Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people that espouses Palestinian self-determination, self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine.de Waart, 1994p. 223 Referencing Article 9 of ''The Pales ...

. Programs on the international services ranged from news and commentary programs to competitions, documentaries and readings from the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. However, the technical quality of the international services was often poor beyond Israel's immediate neighbors in the Middle East. In 1965, the

, an independent public entity, was created and took over responsibility for ''Kol Yisrael'' from the Prime Minister's Office. In 1973, the IBA adopted the name ''Shidurei Yisrael'' ("Israel Broadcasting") for the service's domestic radio and television services. The name ''Kol Yisrael'' was revived for the domestic and international radio service in 1979. ''Kol Yisraels shortwave services have gradually been discontinued over time. The last remaining shortwave service, the Persian programme for Iran, ceased transmissions on June 30, 2013. However, Israel continues to broadcast international services in fourteen languages under the label of Israel Radio International.

Name: meaning and significance

A previous station named ''Kol Yisrael'' had briefly been operated by the Haganah in 1940 on the 42-meter band. However, the station was soon renamed when the Haganah decided that the ''Kol Yisrael'' name should be reserved until independence. Besides meaning "voice of Israel", ''Kol Yisrael'' is also a wordplay which in Hebrew sounds like the phrase "all of Israel" (although spelled differently), known to many Jews as part of the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic expression (, roughly translated "all of Israel are responsible for one another"). An

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

station was launched in 2014 and operated through 2015 under the name of " Voice of Israel". This station is not connected to the official ''Kol Yisrael'' run by Israel Radio International.

Broadcast channels

Current ''Kol Yisrael'' channels include: *''Kan Tarbut'' ("The Culture Network"), also referred to as ''Kol Yisrael'' – General talk and cultural programming. *''Kan Bet'' ("Network B") – Popular radio station with news and current affairs programming, as well as sports coverage. There are news bulletins on the hour in Hebrew. *''Kan Gimel'' ("Network C") – Radio station devoted for promoting Israeli music. There are news bulletins in Hebrew at the same times as ''Kan Bet''. *''Makan'' ("Network D") –

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

-language radio station also known as ''Sawt Isra'eel'' (in ) *''Kan REKA'' (Acronym of ''REshet Klitat Aliya''" - ''lit.'' "Immigrant absorption network") – Radio for ''olim'' (immigrants) to Israel. Broadcasts in 14 languages, including English at 0430, 1030, 1830 UTC (+1 hr during the Summer). * Israel Radio International – International broadcasts in 14 languages: English, French, Persian, Bukhori,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Maghrebi Arabic Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...

, Georgian,

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

, Tigrinya, Ladino, Hungarian, Romanian, and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. The international services are currently only available via online streaming and rebroadcasts through the domestic REKA network. *''Kan 88'' – "High Quality" music (their terminology). Jazz, blues, electronic music and more, plus traffic news *''Kan Kol Ha Musica'' ("The Voice of Music") –

Classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and drama. *''Kan Moreshet'' ("The Heritage Network") – Religious broadcasting on ''Kan Tarbuts network. There are also educational stations broadcasting via low-power transmitters from colleges and universities across Israel under the collective banner of ''Tachana Chinuchit''. All of ''Kol Israel''s stations are available worldwide through streaming audio over the Internet. Live broadcasts as well as archived programs are available to listeners.

Gallery

File:מיקרופון קול ישראל באולפנים ליד שרונה 2.jpg, Broadcaster microphone in ''Kol Yisrael'' studios near Sarona File:Rashut Hashidur20161014 121224 43.jpg, "Reshet Gimel" studio commemorating Ehud Manor File:שידור התוכנית סידורים לשבת עם ליאת רגב.jpg, Live show in ''Kol Yisrael'' Studios File:חדר פיקוח טכני במתחם רשות השידור ליד שרונה.jpg, Control and Monitoring room in ''Kol Yisrael'' facilities in Tel Aviv File:Rashut Hashidur20161014 121224 33.jpg, ''Kol Yisrael'' Studio

References

External links

Official site

Frequencies to receive Kol Israel networks
{{Authority control Publicly funded broadcasters Defunct radio networks Radio stations in Israel International broadcasters Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Israel Broadcasting Authority 2017 disestablishments in Israel Radio stations disestablished in 2017 Words and phrases in Modern Hebrew Defunct shortwave radio stations