Among the many performances, workshops, shows and activities held as part of the International Festival of Puppet Theater, held Aug. 9-13 in Jerusalem, was a fascinating panel featuring local and international artists discussing puppet theater for 1-year-old tots.

According to Ilan Savir, director of the International Festival of Puppet Theatre and Film, held July 16-25 in Holon, conventional wisdom has it that there is no point in letting children watch puppet theater before age 3. “It’s better to sit on the sofa at home, read the kid a book and do voices,” said Savir, who also heads the Israel Puppet Center in Holon. “The concept of reality only sets in at age 3, and only then do children understand the difference between reality and make-believe.” The directors of the Jerusalem festival apparently think otherwise, because they staged three shows for children ages 1 to 3. This is just one example of the groundbreaking path puppetry art is taking in Israel.

Maayan Resnick, a puppet artist who staged a two-dimensional adaptation of the children's book A Sick Day for Amos McGee at both festivals, observed that in Israel there is no tradition of puppet theater, unlike in Europe and the Far East. “It allows us to create a very contemporary theater,” she told Al-Monitor.

At the Jerusalem festival, Zvi Sahar, another puppet artist, presented an ambitious adaptation of “The Road to Ein Harod” by Amos Kenan, using a technique of puppet cinema that he developed in which he films what’s happening on stage and simultaneously screens it above the stage. He concurs with Resnick's view, stating, “In Jewish culture, there is no history of theatrical art. We are new at it. Modern Israeli puppet artists get inspiration from Syrian and Indonesian and American and European art. There’s something in the lack of roots of puppetry that allows great artistic freedom.”