Soap opera without sex

NECHEMIA MEYERS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Backers of the new Hatechelet TV channel, created to serve the needs of the observant, are hoping against hope that the religious soap opera that they have begun to screen will attract enough new viewers to keep them in business.

The soapie focuses on the "court" of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Tel-Aviv and on the personal conflicts that pervade it. These involve the rabbi's wife, portrayed as the power behind the throne, as well as his troubled offspring, his rich patron, his court matchmaker and a variety of other bearded men and head-covered women. There are plenty of intrigues, but, unlike the many soap operas on secular stations, there is no sex.

Commenting on this fact, the television critic of Israel's leading radio station, Ran Ben-Nun, says that the program has to make do with "embarrassed glances and silences pregnant with hidden meanings."

Generally speaking, secular publications have ridiculed this sexless soap opera while Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox publications have ignored it. This is understandable since the ultra-Orthodox, like those portrayed in the program, are forbidden by rabbis, like the one portrayed in the program, from having TV sets in their homes. One weekly with many Orthodox readers, Makor Rishon, did have something to say about the rabbi and his court: It accused Hatechelet of trying to prove that it could do anything the other channels do, rather than sticking to its mission of bringing Jewish content to Israeli viewers.

There is nothing unusual or exciting about Hatechelet's other features, including talk shows, lectures by learned rabbis, presentations of Jewish history, travelogues and squeaky clean programs for children. These are almost all original productions, which make up 60 per cent of Hatechelet's offerings – whereas secular channels rely primarily on imports. Among the other programs screened by the station are "exciting" imports like BBC documentaries on wildlife and the children's classic Anne of Green Gables. Hatechelet also offers a rerun of a series on the annals of Zionism, originally commissioned by Channel One.

According to Shlomo Ben-Tzvi, the British-born entrepreneur who has provided most of the start-up funds for Hatechelet, "there are overlapping television viewing populations that are likely to find our programs of interest. These primarily include the national religious group and traditional Israelis. In preliminary market research based on 65 focus groups and 6,000 door-to-door interviews, we found that 65 per cent of Jewish households owning television sets want more Jewish content on TV."

What remains to be seen is whether they will pay for it. Gaining access to the religious station costs digital cable subscribers and people with satellite TV about $6 Can a month.

While the company refuses to release figures as to the number of its subscribers, it is no secret that it is still far from the break-even point. Israel's leading expert on the ultra-Orthodox, Bar-Ilan Prof. Menachem Friedman, doubts whether that point will ever be reached.

"After all, the ultra-Orthodox don't have TV sets and the modern Orthodox aren't likely to be interested," he pointed out. "The only people who are really enthusiastic about Hatechelet are the growing number of observant young men and women with media training who are looking for jobs. The new channel isn't likely to solve their problem."

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