- Kishkashta
"Kishkashta" was the main character in one of the first Israeli children's television shows, "Ma Pit'om" ("מה פתאום;" "What on earth?" or, "You don't say!"), written by, among other screenwriters,
Tamar Adar . The show aired in the 1970s and '80s, when there was only one television station in Israel, TV was still black and white, and there were only a few hours of television a day."Kishkashta" was a talking cactus, a felt puppet equivalent to
Big Bird , who introduced himself singing a solitary song, "Ma Pit'om:" "They call me 'Kishkashta,' Kishkashta is my name... I almost forgot: 'hello!' I sing and dance almost by myself - in the program "Ma Pit'om"." (קוראים לי קישקשתא...."קישקשתא זה שמי....כמעט ושכחתי: שלום!אני שר ורוקד לי כמעט בעצמי....בתוכנית מה פתאום). The show consisted of Kishkashta asking questions of himself as well as of the Israeli children who were his co-hosts. Nira Rabinovitch, today a famous Israelinew age figure, sang the song "Ma Pit'om" with Kishkashta in the opening act.In Israel, the cactus is a symbol of
Israeli -born Jews, called sabras ("prickly pear "), as opposed to those who immigrated later, even though thecactus itself is not anative plant . "Kishkashta" embodied the image of Israeli "sabra" identity, a character "rough from the outside but soft and sweet from the inside." He had a deep, melancholic voice and possessed an independent spirit exuding the "dugri" (straight) "sabra" character for which Israelis are known.Ma Pit'om lyrics
קוראים לי קישקשתא....קישקשתא זה שמי....כמעט ושכחתי: שלום!אני שר ורוקד לי כמעט בעצמי....בתוכנית מה פתאום....אני שר בעצמי ורוקד עם עצמי...ומספר סיפורים לבד....מוחא גם כפיים - למי?....לעצמי!....והכל בעצמי!....כמעט.......אני שר - מה פתאום?....אני מוכשר? מה פתאום?....והכל בעצמי.......מה פתאום? מה פתאום? מה פתאום?....תשאלו מה פתאום הם קוראים לי קישקשתא:....באמת, מה פתאום?....מה פתאום
External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLDOC0BCOG0 Youtube video of Kishkashta]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=146529249619329575 Hebrew site with video of Kishkashta]
* [http://www.nbirkes.com/YouTube/results.aspx?tag=kiskashta Hebrew site with list of videos of Kishkashta]
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