(July 28, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
Thirty-nine years after famed French high-wire artist Philippe Petit captivated thousands by walking across Jerusalem\u2019s Hinnom Valley, a new generation of aerial performers returned to the skies at twilight on Tuesday to recreate one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Israel Festival.<\/p>\n
The opening event of the 65th Israel Festival, titled \u201cHeld By a String,\u201d featured four high-line artists traversing cables suspended high above the Hinnom Valley, on the seam between east and west Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by live music from the Jerusalem East and West Orchestra and the Jerusalem Youth Choir, the performance combined aerial artistry with an artistic message of dialogue, resilience and shared space.<\/p>\n
Among the performers was Israeli high-wire artist Yonatan Tabachnik, who carefully balanced above the valley alongside fellow aerial artists as they crossed the cables stretching across the historic landscape in Israel\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
The free public event marked the official opening of this year\u2019s festival, which runs from July 28 through Aug. 20 in Jerusalem, the Western Negev and the Upper Galilee.<\/p>\n
Revisiting a landmark moment<\/p>\n
The performance paid tribute to Petit, the legendary French high-wire artist whose 1987 crossing above the Hinnom Valley became one of the defining images of that year\u2019s Israel Festival.<\/p>\n
Petit, 76, is internationally renowned for his unauthorized 1974 walk between New York\u2019s Twin Towers, where he spent 45 minutes crossing the cable eight times, dancing, kneeling and even lying on the wire more than 1,300 feet above the streets below. The feat inspired the Academy Award-winning 2008 documentary Man on Wire and the 2015 feature film The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.<\/p>\n
Petit, whose philosophy of high-wire walking has inspired audiences around the world, once remarked in a TED Talk that \u201clife should be lived on the edge.\u201d That outlook has defined a career spanning more than five decades, from his famed Twin Towers crossing to his symbolic walk above Jerusalem\u2019s Hinnom Valley in 1987.<\/p>\n
Long before his New York performance, Petit staged daring crossings between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and Sydney Harbor Bridge in 1973. His 1987 Jerusalem feat, linking the Jewish and Arab quarters at the festival\u2019s opening under then-Mayor Teddy Kollek, became a lasting symbol of artistic daring and coexistence.<\/p>\n
Seeking balance<\/p>\n
Festival organizers described this year\u2019s production as more than a historical recreation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a world that has gone slightly off-balance, at a point where we have nearly lost our equilibrium, we return to seeking a foothold,\u201d the festival said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Four aerial lines stretched across the valley invited audiences to look upward as artists navigated \u201cdanger and beauty, tenacity and strength,\u201d creating what organizers called \u201ca shared space for dialogue\u2014between East and West, between voices, communities and human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organizers added that the performance invites audiences to watch \u201cthe small human figure rise after a fall, continue walking above the abyss, weaving with every step threads of connection and hope.\u201d That vision, they said, lies at the heart of a production that seeks to find balance in an uncertain world.<\/p>\n
Israel Festival CEO Uri Vaknin said the event reflected the festival\u2019s determination to keep bringing people together despite the challenges facing Israeli society. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israel Festival is first and foremost a live meeting between artists, creators and audiences,\u201d he said. \u201cIts very existence cannot be taken for granted today. Continuing to create and gather is itself an expression of our commitment to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
High-wire artists traverse cables suspended above Jerusalem\u2019s Hinnom Valley during the opening event of the 65th Israel Festival on July 28, 2026. Video by Liam Forberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 28, 2026 \/ JNS) Thirty-nine years after famed French high-wire artist Philippe Petit captivated thousands by walking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-563968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}