“I suggested Moti Kirschenbaum we’d set out on a journey around the country together, following his old reports, going back to the people and places he had covered for over three decades. I was afraid he would refuse but Moti immediately agreed. Just as we were to start filming, the night before we were to embark on our journey, he suddenly died.” So says Ben Shani in the beginning of the three-episode series, The Kirschenbaum Diaries. Ben Shani did go on that journey, but without Moti. Using rare archive materials, scenes documented in real time, historic moments such as wars, elections and conflicts, marked with Kirschenbaum’s unique fingerprint, he goes on the journey. It’s hard to ignore the relevance of his works today, and the nearly prophetic sense interlaced in some of them. It’s about identifying trends and processes in the society and at the national level, which are reflected through excellent documentary filmmaking. A rare combination, expressed by his narration that comes with the images, giving them unique interpretation, spiced with Kirschenbaum’s sense of humor and associative connections. And though he himself rarely appears on camera, Kirschenbaum is still the central figure in the Israeli story, told through his reports. The episodes of the series are derived from this experience. They will give significant priority to archive materials, keep Kirschenbaum’s unique narration, and enable what was not possible in the past – a historical perspective, stemming from the distance of time and the compilation of all his works.