Spring has undeniably well and truly sprung. The lush green and richly sequined polychromic pageant of late winter-early spring – after a disappointingly rainless winter – has dimmed somewhat. But there are still blossoms and flowers to be had, and Passover, the traditional spring holiday, beckons with its spread of cultural and leisure time events up and down the country for all ages and consumer tastes.
If theater is your thing, then be aware that the long-running Theatronetto Festival is in its 34th season at various locations around Old Jaffa, April 14-16. The veteran solo performance program features seven new monodramas and nine short solo pieces, many of which will reference themes of trauma, grief, and resilience against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza. Highlights include As You Requested, a silent play starring Sarah von Schwarze as a lonely woman longing for change, and Womb (Honor the Dead), in which Nir Sofer-Dodek depicts a mother’s struggle after losing her soldier daughter in the October 7 attack on a military base.
For tickets and more information: jaffatheatre.org.il/shows/teatroneto-festival-2025/
If you’re looking to combine varied quality musical entertainment with some health-inducing physical activity while catching some of Mother Nature’s seasonal finery, Nachal Tzipori in Western Galilee is well up to the task. The Spring Festival takes place at the nature reserve, April 16-19, with a star-studded lineup. Veteran guitarist-vocalist David Broza is on the bill for the closing act, when he will team up with rising star 25-year-old Valerie Hamaty and the Polyphony Quartet. Also performing will be septuagenarian pianist-flutist-vocalist Shemtov Levy, hosting violinist Nassim Dakwar. Soprano vocalist Nur Darwish joins forces with pianist Nizar Elkhater in a tribute to 90-year-old preeminent Lebanese singer Fairuz, and rapper Shaanan Street – of Hadag Nachash fame – shares a stage with Arab rapper Saz for an evening of Hebrew and Arabic hip-hop. Jazz also gets a programmatic look in with the Woladam quintet hosting violinist Shaadan Nahara and bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) player Madhav Haridas.
There are also walks laid on along the recently rehabilitated Tzipori river course and other outdoor activities.
For tickets and more information: lp4biz.com/tzipori and *6119
There’s more music – lots more – on offer at the Holon Theater when the 30th edition of the Yemei Zemer Festival takes place April 15-17. As usual, there is a slew of A-lister pop, rock, folk, and ethnic acts lined up with the likes of actress-comedienne Miki Kam, actress-singer Hana Laszlo, Kam’s rock guitarist husband Yehuda Eder, and their guitarist-singer son Alon Eder all on the bill.
As each year, the program offers a blast from the past along with more contemporary fare. The cross-generational crop of artists includes Alon Olearchick, Erik Sinai, Mika Karni, Efrat Gosh, and Tamar Giladi. Kam and veteran ethnic-leaning pop group Ethnix will get lifetime achievement awards at the festival.
For tickets and more information: (03) 502-3001 and zemer-festival.co.il/
Museums generally feature prominently in vacation time programming, and the forthcoming Passover break follows seasonal suit. The Israel Museum’s Archaeology Wing is opening the Pharaoh’s Animal Kingdom experiential exhibition, designed to enlighten youngsters about the special relationship that existed between the ancient Egyptians and the animal life of the time.
This is the wing’s first show oriented toward the younger crowd and takes in reliefs, paintings, statues, charms, and jewelry from the museum’s Egyptian collection. The exhibits will convey the main roles animals played in daily life and religious practices in Egypt when Pharaohs ruled the roost there and the pyramids were under construction.
For more information: imj.org.il/en
There’s more in the way of family-oriented arty fare at the Janco Dada Museum at Ein Hod, April 14-18, kicking off with daily guided tours of the studio of the institution’s founder, Dada movement pioneer Marcel Janco, and the permanent collection there. The Mabadada experiential creativity space offers youngsters from the age of four and adults an opportunity to try out their artistic skills with a cross-disciplinary array of raw materials.
For tickets and more information: (04) 984-2350 and jancodada.co.il/
Holon, the country’s unofficial children’s cultural capital, Holon, has plenty going on over at the vacation slot. The Israel Children’s Museum has activities for the junior crowd from the age of three, including an age group-tailored intercultural course that meanders through structures made of a wide variety of materials, including mud, snow, and paper. There is also a special sensory experience lined up for youth aged 14 and over, and adults, with the In Her Eyes slot. Participants will get a palpable idea of the challenges faced by a sight-impaired woman who overcame great odds to become an acclaimed chef.
For tickets and more information: childrensmuseum.org.il
If you’re looking to get a different angle of reality, the Museum of Illusions in Tel Aviv looks like a good bet. The Illusion Rooms shuffle the cerebral pack and play tricks on the visitor’s mind, and there is a slew of installations that challenge everyday perception.
For tickets and more information: museumofillusions.co.il/
What about events in Jerusalem?
Over in Jerusalem, the Tower of David Museum is offering English-language guided tours of the new museum, and mostly Hebrew-language activities for the whole family. There is plenty laid on over Passover to keep visitors of all ages fully engaged and well entertained with the Spring Creative Corner hands-on activity program for kids aged four to 14, and the Spring Fairy and the Ladybug family activity, which takes place at the On the Other Side art exhibition by Zadok Ben-David. Participants will be guided through the show by two actors. The twice-daily Hebrew language tour enlightens visitors about the cyclical renewal of nature as they discover new sides to themselves and perspectives on the world around us, through song and music.
The museum is also holding a contest for six to 12-year-olds who will try to identify large vegetation items, and there is a Hebrew guided tour about pilgrimages to the Temple. Other Tower of David activities include games, fancy dress, quizzes, musical entertainment, and a rare opportunity to climb the minaret.
For tickets and more information: tod.org.il/en
The Eretz Israel Museum in Ramat Aviv is opting for a seasonal vittles approach with its Watermelon in the Garden Festivities event. The program, for children from the age of six, April 14-17, takes in guided tours and various interactive slots, including creating characters that will feature in a movie screened at the olive press.
The museum’s exhibitions will also be open to the public throughout the Passover vacation.
For tickets and more information: eretzmuseum.org.il/
There is more in the way of museum activities on offer down South at the Negev Museum of Art in Beersheva. The April 14-17 program lays on an interactive family quiz with prizes, guided tours, and arts workshops for all ages. Participation in the latter requires advance registration.
For tickets and more information: bit.ly/4hUWG44
Meanwhile, the second edition of the Autonomous Art Biennale is currently in progress at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school. The program, which runs through April 19, includes a slew of exhibitions across a variety of disciplines. Guided tours take place daily at 10:30 a.m., complemented by curator tours, including in English, at 12 noon and 4 p.m. There are also family-oriented items, such as arts and crafts workshops, available throughout.
Other Biennale slots include live DJ performances, dance, improvisational playback theater art therapy, a talk about legendary rock-pop star David Bowie, and gardening.
For more information: a-a-b.org/
The Train Theater in Jerusalem is always a good place to find quality entertainment for kids and their elders, and the Mini Passover Festival looks set to deliver the goods, April 14-17. Over the four days, patrons can catch a wide range of puppet theater shows, live music, animated films, sing-alongs, storytelling, and workshops – in addition to enjoying the interactive play areas.
For more information: traintheater.co.il/
Junior consumer-oriented entertainment is front and center at the Elmina Theater at 11 a.m. on April 17. The Jaffa-based company presents a Hebrew-Arabic performance of Arnavim (Rabbits), which looks at how to get on with others with different ideas about life.
For tickets and more information: (03) 533-5444, (050-280-0300 and elminajaffa.com/
If dance is your thing and your kids love it too, the famed Batsheva Dance Company should help in that regard. Company founder-artistic director Ohad Naharin’s Kamuyot plays at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv on April 15-17 and appeals to the sense of humor of “all children aged five-80.” The production has a strong interactive side to it, and spectators are invited to dance alongside the professionals during the course of the 50-minute performance. The shows will be preceded by a 45-minute workshop, for children and their parents, on Gaga, the movement language conceived by Naharin.
For tickets and more information: batsheva.co.il/en/schedule/?show_id=3116
Spring is always a good time to catch wildlife doing its colorful thing. We can all get a better handle on butterflies, and their place in our fragile ecosystem, over the Passover period through to April 26 courtesy of the Israeli Lepidopterist’s Society in collaboration with the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Ramat Aviv, Ramat Hanadiv, the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel, and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. As part of the initiative, members of the public, of all ages, are asked to observe butterflies in their surroundings, in parks, and in other open spaces for at least 15 minutes; then identify them and report them using an online Hebrew-language form. The data will be collated and processed by the Israel Center for Citizen Science of the Steinhardt Museum and will be used to monitor crucial changes in our environment.
For forms: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/26b58926bc8f4983842cd865011604b8?lang=he
For more information: biocollect.citizen-science.smnh.tau.ac.il/iccs/project/index/78132e46-3bef-4822-afd8-a5cf38242801?lang=he
There is also a plethora of musical entertainment on offer around the country. Bet Gabriel on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee has lined up a cast of stellar acts on April 10-14, including Ehud Banai, Jimbo J, Shalom Hanoch, and Yasmin Moallem.
For tickets and more information: to-mix.co.il/product/bundle-kineretvibes/?eventbuzz=true
If your musical tastes lean toward the Middle Eastern end of the stylistic scale, you would do well to get yourself over to Ashdod, where the 13th edition of the Tor Hazahav (Golden Age) Festival takes place April 14-20. The eclectic program includes seminal rock group Mashina, Ariel Zilber, Shai Tzabari, the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Choir.
For tickets and more information: torhazahav.co.il/
And the circus is coming to town – to Haifa, to be exact – when the Circo Circo troupe sets up its stall there through to April 17. The family-tailored shows take place four times a day.
For tickets and more information: kupat.co.il/show/circus
The Safe Place Festival, which features theater and other activities in a sensory-friendly environment for people with autism, will take place for the seventh time from April 15-17 at the Mandel Cultural Center in Jaffa, and this year’s theme will be dreams.
The festival will include a puppet theater performance based on a book by Shira Geffen, The Heart-Shaped Leaf, which Geffen directed and adapted herself. There will also be a musical story-time by Sharon Kantor, and many interactive performances for people of all ages.
The activities are designed with children, teens, and adults on the autism spectrum in mind, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, attention disorders, sensory regulation issues, and Tourette’s syndrome. The goal is to help the audience build self-confidence, social skills, and a love of the arts.
For more information, go to the festival website at safeplacefest.org/2025-festival/
During the Passover holiday, from April 14-15, the Signals for Spring festival will be held at the Israel Railways Museum in Haifa, where the new signals exhibit will be unveiled. Visitors will enjoy an impressive locomotive display, a stamp exhibition, children’s craft workshops, a gymnasium complex, and a photo booth. Admission costs NIS 15 per person (from the age of two) and requires advance registration. Arrival at the museum will be via trains operating from Haifa’s Center-HaShmona station between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
There will also be a historical stamp exhibition, workshops for creating crafts from recycled materials, a photo booth, train gyms for small children, and more. For those who really enjoy train travel, consider traveling to Haifa by train and taking the Karmelit through the city.
For more information about the Israel Railways Museum, go to the website at rail.co.il/?page=museumHannah Brown contributed to this report.
