During the upcoming Sukkot holiday, Confederation House in Jerusalem will become an open, vibrant and polyphonic sukkah of poetry with the “Ushpizin Poetry” Festival: three days of encounters, musical performances, readings, tributes and conversations devoted to major figures of Israeli and world poetry and literature. The festival, taking place from September 29 through October 1, 2026, invites audiences to a literary and cultural celebration connecting voices from the past with questions that touch upon our lives here and now.
This year, the eighth edition of the festival will be held under the theme “Poets Are Called Alive in Death,” honoring two great Jerusalem poets who are no longer with us, yet whose poems remain relevant and resonant today: Hedva Harechavi, the mesmerizing and enigmatic poet who passed away last year, and Israel Eliraz, the poet who wrote that the unbelievable simply exists. The event in his honor will mark ten years since his death. As always, all events will be accompanied by live music performed by some of Israel’s finest musicians.
“Our Sukkot tradition proves each year to be an opportunity to rekindle in our hearts the hope for days of tranquility and an opening of the mind, days of reconciliation and peace”, says Effie Benaya, CEO of Confederation House and Festival Director. “This year, too, the festival will be dedicated to the late Haim Gouri, the poet of war and peace, who knew how to give voice to the wounded heart of Israeli identity. This time, the festive tribute event will highlight the concept of home in his work – a home that is both a refuge and a source of concern. The festival is rich in diverse events, and we will continue our ‘Reading Café’ tradition, with intimate encounters between literary figures and poets who are close to their hearts. I invite you all to be the ushpizin – the guests – in our sukkah of poetry.”
“Ushpizin Poetry’ is an opportunity to open the inner home wide”, says the festival’s Artistic Director, Binyamin Shvili. “In recent years, the physical home we all share has become a constant source of concern and anxiety. For most people living here, the safe space has been outside the home: in shelters, stairwells, various protected spaces, and sometimes with no protected space at all. During the festival, the traditional sukkah will serve as a metaphor for the inner home of the heart”.
The program includes encounters and musical performances introducing audiences to the lives and works of giants of poetry and the human spirit: the sharp-tongued and macabre Jewish-American poet Dorothy Parker, known for her turbulent life and her activism for human rights; beloved children’s poet Miriam Yalan-Shteklis, recipient of the Israel Prize for Children’s Literature, who had an extraordinary ability to articulate the voices of children; Osip Mandelstam, one of the great Russian writers of the 20th century, known for his opposition to the Soviet regime, for which he paid a heavy price; Rachel Bluwstein, known as Rachel the Poet, whose delicate and finely wrought poems remain part of the soundtrack of our lives to this day; Uri Nissan Gnessin, the lyrical writer who created a poetic style unlike any other; Matsuo Basho, the great 17th-century Japanese traveling poet who interspersed his journals with extraordinary haiku; Dante and Petrarch, two great 14th-century poets who both experienced larger-than-life love stories; Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Italian filmmaker and poet whose passionate and scandalous films provoked widespread controversy; Octavio Paz, the Mexican poet, essayist and diplomat, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; and poet Shaul Tchernichovsky, whose event will focus on his masterful translations of ancient Greek poetry.
The festival will conclude with a special festive performance dedicated to the extraordinary meeting between Matti Caspi’s compositions and Natan Zach’s poetry. Caspi, who passed away this year, is considered by many to be one of Israel’s greatest composers. His musical interpretations of Zach’s poems are exemplary in their precision, complexity and emotion.
The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Culture Administration, and the Jerusalem Municipality’s Department of Culture. Ticket price: NIS 30, Opening and closing events: NIS 50. Tickets may be purchased through Confederation House, on the Confederation House website – “Ushpizin Poetry Festival” – and by phone: 02-5399360.
Full Festival Program
Tuesday | September 29, 2026
14:00–15:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Strong as Death | The Love of Petrarch and Dante
Laura and Petrarch, Beatrice and Dante — two loves, two worlds. Alon Altaras, Lior Sternberg and Anna Herman discuss the immortal love poetry of two of Italy’s greatest poets, Dante and Petrarch. Music: Eran Zur
Reading Café
15:30–16:30 | Gallery, Confederation House
The Last Music | Osip Mandelstam
Rita Kogan reads and discusses Osip Mandelstam, one of the most important Russian poets of the 20th century, whose life and poetry reflect the complex and brutal history of Russia during the first three decades of the previous century. Music: Amit Poznansky, piano; Ziv Shalit, vocals; Yifat Waltman, cello
17:00–18:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Oh, How I Wept in This Dream | A Tribute to Hedva Harechavi
A tribute to Hedva Harechavi, a total and unique poet and one of the most moving and affecting voices in contemporary Hebrew poetry, who passed away last year. Moderator: Omer Waldman; Participants: Ariel Hirschfeld, Shira Stav; Music: Einav Jackson Cohen, piano and vocals
Reading Café
18:30–19:30 | Gallery, Confederation House
A Mediterranean Anthology
David Ohana, a scholar of Levantine and Mediterranean identity, will read a selection of Mediterranean poetry and discuss it. Music: Wissam Joubran, oud
20:30–22:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Festival Opening Event
Writing About Home | A Tribute to Haim Gouri
In Haim Gouri’s poetry, home is a place of belonging, but also a place that arouses concern and anxiety. No expression better captures the complexity of the idea of home in Gouri’s work than “protected space” — two words that have become so tangible in our lives. Moderator: Binyamin Shvili; Participants: Rita Kogan, Eran Tzelgov, Lior Sternberg; Music: Efrat Ben Zur, vocals; Lior Elbo, vocals; Omer Hershman, guitar
Wednesday | September 30, 2026
14:00–15:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
With My Broken Chalk and My Red Pencil | Octavio Paz
A tribute to Mexican poet Octavio Paz, Nobel Prize laureate, a creator who loved bringing cultures together, fought for freedom and was unafraid of solitude or love. Moderator: Tal Nitzan; Participants: Shachar-Mario Mordechai, Rafi Weichert; Reading: Doron Tavori
Reading Café
15:30–16:30 | Gallery, Confederation House
Nostalgia for a Lost World | Pasolini
Alon Altaras reads and discusses the poetry of filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, a poet of lyricism and rage and a provocateur who relentlessly pursued hypocrisy. Reading: Doron Tavori
17:00–18:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Be a Little Light for Me | The Poetry of Rachel
Rachel Bluwstein — a mythic figure in Hebrew poetry, the poet of pioneering Zionism and Hebrew identity, of the lyricism of everyday life, tragedy and struggle. Li Maman, Bekhol Serloui and Avishai Houri will discuss her poetry, which embodies a combination of innocence and clear-sightedness that we have lost. Music: Esti Kenan Ofri, voice; Avri Borochov, double bass
Reading Café
18:30–19:30 | Gallery, Confederation House
Drugs Cause Shrinkage | Dorothy Parker
Ronen Sonis reads and discusses Dorothy Parker, an American poet and writer of Jewish descent, a sharp intellectual whose poetry cuts like a razor. Music: Hadara Levin-Areddy
20:30–22:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Urgent Things | A Tribute to Israel Eliraz
“Everything we have seen must be seen anew,” wrote poet Israel Eliraz, who passed away nearly ten years ago — one of the most persistent poets in Hebrew poetry, who strove to shatter the walls of consciousness, and whose entire body of poetry can be seen as one single poem struggling to see. Moderator: Binyamin Shvili; Participants: Agi Mishol, Bilha Ben-Eliyahu; Music: Albert Sofer, vocals; Ofer Faryan, guitar
Thursday | October 1, 2026
14:00–15:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Zehava the Doll | Miriam Yalan-Shteklis
Miriam Yalan-Shteklis, a pioneer of Hebrew children’s literature whose poems are cornerstones of Israeli culture, was never a mother herself, yet became a great mother figure for generations of children — and for adults who have not forgotten that they were once children. Many of her poems were set to music, the best known among them being “Zehava the Doll.” Moderator: Noa Shkargy; Participants: Ruth Ashur, Kim Meidan; Music: Victoria Hanna, composition and vocals; Liora King-Pitts, composition and piano
Reading Café
15:30–16:30 | Gallery, Confederation House
The Narrow Road to Oku | Matsuo Basho
Alex Ben-Ari reads and discusses Matsuo Basho, the wandering Japanese haiku poet whose journeys were immortalized in his journals. Basho wrote prose and poetry, the best known of which, The Narrow Road to Oku, is considered one of the pinnacles of travel writing. Music: Mayo Shviro, cello
17:00–18:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
The Hellenizer | A Tribute to Shaul Tchernichovsky
Anacreon, the poet of wine; Sappho and her love poetry; The Iliad and The Odyssey — these and many other treasures of ancient Greek poetry were bestowed upon us by poet Shaul Tchernichovsky through his magnificent translations. Moderator: Shachar-Mario Mordechai; Participants: Shimon Bouzaglo, Shani Pocker; Music: Eran Zur
Reading Café
18:30–19:30 | Gallery, Confederation House
From the Melodies of Time | Uri Nissan Gnessin
Ariel Hirschfeld reads and discusses Uri Nissan Gnessin, a friend of Yosef Haim Brenner, who walked a very narrow bridge between prose and poetry. His impressionistic language possesses a delicacy of perception unmatched by those who came before or after him. Music: Hadara Levin-Areddy
20:30–22:00 | Concert Hall, Confederation House
Closing Event
When God First Said | Caspi Composes Zach
Matti Caspi’s musical settings of Natan Zach’s poems are masterpieces of modern Israeli music. A festive event in memory of Matti Caspi, who passed away this year. Moderator: Uri Hollander; Participants: Sivan Shenhav-Shav, Rona Kenan; Vocals: Rona Kenan
