Dirty Israeli hippies are HOT!

I think so anyway, though ck does not seem to agree.

I was recently commissioned to do a story for the World Jewish Digest on different summer festivals in Israel. With little time to spare, I convinced ck to join me on a ridiculous journey up the coast to hit the Shantipi Festival for a few hours before making it back down to Jerusalem for Shavuot.

Shantipi is run by the same folks who put on Boombamela and Bereshet during Passover and Rosh HaShana, respectively. As the smallest of three, I was slightly charmed by Shantipi’s quaint nature compared to the other two. ck, however, was less impressed and spent most of the time doing his Cartman “I hate stupid hippies” voice.


I went to my first Israeli festival just a week after arriving in Israel for the first time. I tagged along with some religious hippy folks who were going to Bereshet and had a truly transformative experience (even wrote an article about Boombamela a year and a half later). Having only known American Jews (not that there’s anything wrong with that) I was struck dumb by the beauty and range and passion of the Jewish people in Israel. I never knew we could be so cool, or so hot. Or that we carried off dreadlocks so well.

In any case, compared to it’s population, Israel has a disproportionate amount of these and other sorts of festivals, and a large amount of people go. We got to speak to a lot of interesting people as to why. But that’ll wait for the real article. In the meantime, enjoy these pics, with a few more to come.

And I was wondering why no one offered us drugs! Note to self – next time you go to a hippy festival with the hopes of interacting with said hippies, do NOT be accompanied by a big guy wearing a “Police” shirt.

Dreads-R-Us