Jerusalem’s Israel Festival will mark its 65th year this summer with three weeks of shows in Jerusalem, the Western Negev and Israel’s north, bringing the festivities to some of the communities hit hardest by the last two and a half years of war.

The festival opens on July 28 with an aerial performance above Jerusalem’s Hinnom Valley inspired by the renowned French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who crossed the same vale in 1987 on a tightrope. It runs through August 20.

One of the festival highlights will be a performance by former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, who will present the nine songs he wrote and composed during Hamas captivity.

The concert will take place on the lawn of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where Dekel-Chen was born and raised, and where he lived with his wife and two older daughters before the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion in which a quarter of the kibbutz’s residents were killed or taken captive.

“I’m not a singer,” said Dekel-Chen in a statement for the festival. “I’m a father who sings. I never intended to become a singer or perform.”

Dekel-Chen was abducted on October 7 from Nir Oz while his pregnant wife and two daughters hid in their family’s safe room. Shot in the shoulder during the onslaught, he endured torture in captivity that left him physically scarred.

He was completely cut off from the outside world while in Gaza, unsure whether his family had survived the massacre that saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 kidnapped to the Strip.

During his 498 days of captivity, until he was released in February 2025, Dekel-Chen found himself writing music in his head, memorizing words and melodies that he couldn’t write down. Within two days of being released, he recorded all nine songs on his phone.

“My first performance will be in Nir Oz, my home,” stated Dekel-Chen. “It’s the same lawn where I ran as a child, where I first met my wife Mili, where we raised our two daughters, where I fought for my life, and where my friends fell. It’s a lawn with a........

© The Times of Israel