Overview

Shalom Sesame is an adaptation of Sesame Street, the children's television show. It was produced in 1986 and 1990 for public television stations in the United States, aimed at introducing Israel and Judaism to children. Unlike the main Sesame Street series, Shalom Sesame was independently distributed to PBS-member stations, and not by PBS themselves. It includes characters from both Sesame Street and Rechov Sumsum, the Hebrew/Arabic version of Sesame Street, produced and aired in Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan. Also, as with the American series, the series featured special guests well-known to American viewers. Guests included Itzhak Perlman, Bonnie Franklin, Mary Tyler Moore, Mandy Patinkin, Alan King, Joan Rivers, Nell Carter, Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara, Tracey Gold, B.B. King, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Paul Schaffer. In October 2010, a new 12-part Shalom Sesame series began, with stars including Jake Gyllenhaal, Christina Applegate, Debra Messing, Greg Kinnear, Anneliese van der Pol, and Cedric the Entertainer. The new series added Mahboub, an Arab Israeli muppet, and other new characters from the 2006 revival of Rechov Sumsum.