Life History and National Memory: the Israeli Television Program Such a Life, 1972–2001

On May 8, 2003, in the evening, a distinguished group of people gathered in an auditorium located in Shefayim, a locality north of Tel Aviv, to pay tribute to a television personality and the program with which he was overwhelmingly associated. The personality was Amos Ettinger, who was retiring from the Israeli Broadcasting Authority after 43 years of work in radio and television, and the program was Such a Life, which he had produced and hosted between 1972 and 2001. Among the people who came to honor Ettinger were members of the Knesset, major politicians, a retired Supreme Court judge, famous actors and singers, retired high-ranking army officers, university professors, and sports legends. The common denominator of most of these people was that they had appeared, at one time or another, over the years, in Ettinger’s successful program. After consuming a rich buffet in the entrance hall, they entered the auditorium and watched a screening of segments from the program’s episodes, interspersed with fragments from an interview with Ettinger, performances of several popular songs, and friends’ reminiscences about Ettinger’s long career. It was a moving event, a mixture of nostalgia, entertainment, and life-story telling — not very different from Such a Life itself.