Intangible Cultural Heritage of Israel Center, ICH-ISRAEL, is a non-profit organization founded by Israelis volunteers to highlight the importance of preserving Israel's intangible cultural heritage, ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages and the awareness of their significance, to list and promote safeguarding projects, to promote events and festivals, cultural diversity, creative expression and to implement courses for the transmission of knowledges, arts and traditions.

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The organization operates independently and outside any political context, its main objective being the development of the Israeli cultural domain. 

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Context and Motives

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The fact of highlighting our own cultural heritage reinforces the recognition of other identities and cultural heritages existing in Israel, it is by a search for mutual recognition and the protection of the rights of cultural minorities, that we can achieve our goals.

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There is no country in the entire Middle East that more respects the right to freedom of cultural expression as well as the right to freedom of worship than Israel. This is part of our fundamental values, Israel is by its very nature a multicultural country since the country brings together immigrants from all countries of the world as well as almost two million Israeli Arabs and other diverse cultural ethnicities and this is which gives it its extraordinary human richness.

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Israel's cultural heritage is also threatened by the uniformity and homogeneity produced by globalization and its development model, which tends to impose itself as the universal culture both in terms of social behavior and in the cultural and artistic field. The trend towards globalization in terms of artistic creation is a threat to israeli identity and culture for the future generations.

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Traditional trades, traditional crafts, customs, costumes, musical instruments, folk tales are on the way out.

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The plays, dance performances, concerts are mostly modern. Music is becoming electronic, young people are crazy about rap, trance, acid house, techno, hard rock... music that has nothing to do with their identity and their culture and that stupefy. The transmission of culture is increasingly lost and traditional trades are disappearing due to a lack of profitability and social interest.

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Objectives of ICH-ISRAEL

• Safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of Israel

• Promote the intangible cultural heritage of the different communities, groups and individuals of Israel

• Raise awareness of the importance of the intangible cultural heritage of Israel

• Research, identify, list and classify elements of the intangible cultural heritage of Israel

• Support the transmission of skills and knowledges of the intangible cultural heritage of Israel

• Support Israeli folk artists, choreographers, craftspeople in their activities in Israel and abroad

• Promote existing traditional events and folklore festivals in Israel 

• Develop graduate courses and workshops related to the Israeli intangible cultural heritage 

• Support new projects and entrepreneurship in the field of intangible cultural heritage

• Bring together stakeholders of intangible cultural heritage of Israel during an annual festival

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Activities

• Research

• Conferences

• Workshops

• Courses

• Excursions

• Organized trips abroad 

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Support to new immigrants (Olims)

We attach great importance to supporting the personal and professional integration of new immigrants in Israel and we have volunteers who are available to accompany new immigrants in their personal and professional journey. Our activities, trainings and publications are in several languages (Hebrew, English, French, Spanish) to allow them to participate in our activities as soon as they arrive in Israel.