Decades of political hostility have shaped how people think about Israel and Iran, and recent clashes involving the US, Israel and Iran have only heightened tensions. Yet a group of musicians living in Berlin is showing that cultural exchange can persist even across deep political divides.
Sistanagila was started about 15 years ago by Babak Shafieian, an Iranian who came to Germany as a young adult to study. He created the project in response to the antisemitic rhetoric of Iran’s then-president, whose Holocaust denial and threats against Israel made headlines worldwide. Shafieian wanted to offer a different message, using music to express solidarity between Iranians and Israelis.
He drew on a musical family background and on the example of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together Jewish and Palestinian musicians. To form the ensemble he contacted Yuval Halpern, an Israeli musician and composer who became the group’s musical director. Halpern remembers being cautious at first about a message from an Iranian, but after checking Shafieian online they met in Neukölln, a lively Berlin neighborhood, and soon recruited additional Iranian and Israeli players. Halpern says the project could only have grown in Berlin, not in either home country.
Sistanagila’s sound blends Persian classical traditions with Jewish chants and Klezmer, tracing connections through Sephardic and oriental musical threads. The musicians also incorporate influences from heavy metal, classical training, jazz and progressive rock, creating arrangements that reflect their varied backgrounds. The name pairs Sistan, an Iranian region, with Nagila, a nod to the Jewish song Hava Nagila, underscoring the ensemble’s cross-cultural aim.
Members hold diverse personal political views, but they share an understanding of the group’s purpose. They do not see Sistanagila as a vehicle for propaganda or partisan messages; rather, they want to make music together and create something beautiful, describing it as a peace project. At the same time, Shafieian accepts that the group’s existence carries political meaning: Israelis and Iranians playing and creating together sends a clear signal that ordinary people are not the source of political conflict.
With the recent escalation involving the US, Israel and Iran, Shafieian says he worries about Iranians being left vulnerable and hopes the violence will stop soon. He views Sistanagila as one part of a wider network of artistic, political and social initiatives working to build ties between the two peoples, and he hopes the project points toward a future in which Iranians and Israelis can be friends and their countries can develop broader, peaceful relations.
Edited by Brenda Haas