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That's Why I'm (Still) Here  

Celebrating the complexities of life in Israel
Robbie Gringras and Adam Mader 


Stories, songs, and images celebrating the complexities of life in Israel. 


What about the morning after?  


What about the love stories that begin when the infatuation is over, when the complications of real life arise? 


Robbie Gringras fell in love with Israel, and so he went to live there. And then came the morning after… The rudeness, the culture clashes, the violence, the religious quagmire… So why is he still there? 


Performed together with top Israeli musician, Adam Mader, That's Why I'm (Still) Here is a thoughtful yet joyful gathering of personal stories, Israeli contemporary songs, and stunning photography, that together celebrate the complex, troubling, and life-affirming love of Israel, the morning after. 

 Simultaneous translations are projected during the songs, the photographic images blend in and comment on the stories: a multi-media presentation with a heart…  

Audiences laugh, cry, and leave the auditorium smiling. 

The Stories

Chesed and Din – overflowing Israeli Chutzpah 

"I think the most difficult thing for an arriving traveller at Ben Gurion, is actually to get out. In Israel we meet people in. We meet people in with the entire family. Such that there are so many people waiting to meet people in, that there is no room for the incoming people to get out…" 


Kissing Through a Handkerchief

Hilarious culture clashes between my Moroccan mother-in-law and my English mother… 

"And then Dorit's mother made her big mistake. 

 'All right, all right,' she said, 'She can do the dishes. I'll let her do the dishes!' 


Temporary Shelter

Living in the North during the Second Lebanon War 

"I gave her my first lie: 'Everything's going to be all right…'" 


An Unbeliever in the Holy City – Yom Kippur in Jerusalem 

"I wonder whether this is my fate, to wander along holy streets, bathing in the tunes of other people's synagogues, surfing the sounds of other people's prayers, and never to find the synagogue I need…" 


The Songs 

performed together with wonderful Israeli musician Adam Mader: 

Hayom – Ehud Banai; Rak Po – HaDag Nachash; Nitzotz HaAhava– Ehud Banai 

Yamim Shel Sheket – Lola; Pitom Achshav – Shlomo Artzi; Hebrewman - Ehud Banai