HaGashash HaHiver (, ''lit.'' The Pale Tracker) was an iconic

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i comedy trio. It was also known as the ''Gashashim.'' Its three members were

Yeshayahu Levi Isaiahu (Shaike) Levi (; born December 13, 1939) is an Israeli comedian, singer and actor. He is best known for being part of the HaGashash HaHiver comedy trio, which won the Israel Prize in 2000. Biography Yeshayahu (Shaike) Levy was born in Cai ...

("Shaike"),

Yisrael Poliakov Yisrael "Poli" Poliakov (; 7 July 1941 – 30 October 2007) was an Israeli comedian and actor. Poliakov was born in Jerusalem, and grew up in Tel Aviv. He became one of the three members of the Israeli comedy group, HaGashash HaHiver (The Pale Tr ...

("Poli") (deceased) and Gavriel "Gavri" Banai.

History

Shaike, Poli and Gavri had been members of ''

HaTarnegolim HaTarnegolim (, "The Roosters") was an Israeli musical group that worked during 1960–1963. It operated under the direction and musical guidance of Naomi Polani and was composed of veterans of Israeli military ensembles who previously worked with ...

''" ("The Roosters"), founded in 1960 by

Naomi Polani Naomi Polani (; 4 August 1927 – 15 April 2024) was an Israeli musical director, theater director, singer, producer, actress and dancer. She was the Israel Prize laureate for Theater and Dance in 2019. Music career Polani founded the singing g ...

. The Gashashim put on many comedy skits which became classics in their own right ("The Drafted Car", "Off Side Story", "Kreker vs Kreker", etc.) and contributed numerous quotes to modern spoken Hebrew. They also starred in comic Israeli movies which became major hits, such as ''

Givat Halfon Eina Ona ''Giv'at Halfon Eina Ona'' (, lit: "Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer"), also titled ''Giv'at Halfon'', is a cult Israeli comedy film produced in 1976. It is a good-hearted satire of the Israel Defense Forces which tells the story of a reserves company, w ...

'' and recorded many famous Hebrew songs. Some of Israel's greatest authors and playwrights, including the late

Nisim Aloni Nissim Aloni (;) Nissim Aloni (Levy) was born on the 14th of Elul, 5686 (August 24, 1926), in the Wolfson neighborhood of Tel Aviv, to a family of Bulgarian descent. He studied at the "Ahad Ha’am" and "Geula" schools. After the War of Independen ...

, prepared material for the trio. The producer of HaGashash HaHiver was ("Pachanel"). The Gashash' sketches transcended class and education. Their elaborate word play became known as ''Gashashit''. On October 29, 2007, Yisrael Poliakov died at age 66.

Awards and recognition

In 2000, HaGashash HaHiver and its three members were awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

for lifetime achievement & special contribution to society and the State of Israel. The

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s who awarded the prize, wrote of their decision to bestow the award on the group: "''The uniqueness of Hagashash Hahiver is in its two faces: On the one hand, it reflects the life and the culture that were created in Israel during its first 50 years and in the course of wars, immigration absorption and the struggle for its existence. On the other hand, it has taken an active role in shaping this culture, creating its language and sketching its identity...Their language, Gashashit, and the images they created broke the walls of the inflexible Hebrew language and became standard idiomatic phrases, so much so that he who doesn't know them doesn't know a large part of the culture that has sprouted here. Phrases such as, 'Drive in peace, the keys are inside,' 'There was an engine?' eferring to the "Drafted Car" skit where the army returns a requisitioned car without any of its original parts 'Israbluff' and many others that became part of our everyday language.''"

Cultural significance

The group has been repeatedly cited as helping to form a part of the cultural self-identity of many Israelis. Israeli sociologist and scholar

Baruch Kimmerling Baruch Kimmerling (Hebrew: ברוך קימרלינג; 16 October 1939 – 20 May 2007) was an Israeli scholar and professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Upon his death in 2007, ''The Times'' described him as "the first academ ...

called the group "more significant for me than Shakespeare" in terms of this. "They pushed the boundary of surrealism in a language that had been dead for a couple thousand years," said

Stand Up! Records Stand Up! Records is an American independent comedy record label founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Grammy-winning producer Dan Schlissel. It has been called "the country's most respected indie comedy label." Stand Up! has released more than 2 ...

founder

Dan Schlissel Dan Schlissel (born November 9, 1970) is an American record producer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founder of the record labels Stand Up! Records, which specializes in comedy, and -ismist Recordings, which focused on punk and alternative roc ...

, a fan of the group. In her book ''No Joke: Making Jewish Humor'',

Yiddish literature Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Eu ...

scholar

Ruth Wisse Ruth Wisse (; Yiddish: רות װײַס; Roskies; born May 13, 1936) is a Canadian academic and political activist. She is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University ''emerit ...

stated that "if I ask an assortment of Israelis, 'what comes to mind when I say, Israeli humor?' almost everyone answers 'HaGashash HaHiver.'"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagashash Hahiver Israel Prize recipients that are organizations Israel Prize for lifetime achievement & special contribution to society recipients Israeli comedy troupes Comedy trios