"About 100 people gathered at the Korean Ambassador's residence H.E. Mr Il-Soo Kim and wife Mrs Moonkyung Son on the evening of January 18, for a celebration of Korean culture, marking the beginning of the year of the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations of Israel and Korea. The evening, organized by the Korean Embassy jointly with iAsia website, included an open dialogue with the Ambassador of Korea in Israel, Mr. Ilsoo Kim, and a Korean cooking demonstration performed by Mrs. Moonkyung Son, the Ambassador's wife.The evening started with short presentations by Ms. Tali Tessler, member of the Israeli Youth Delegation to Korea, in which prominent Israelis under the age of 35 can take part. The members of the program get to visit Korea and meet fellow Koreans who share common interests, mainly in the fields of politics, economics and culture.
Another surprising presentation was made by the representatives of ASIA4HB, an Israeli on-line Korean culture club which shares a forum of Korean Drama enthusiates, providing free subtitles for Israeli viewers. Nurit Agebayev and Julia Stoller revealed that more than 5,000 people watch Korean drama shows in Israel, and the community is consistently growing. Recently, the VIVA channel in Israel aired "Sweet Sam-Sun", the most favourite Korean drama, and what many Israelis defined in that evening as their "gateway to Korean culture".
The Ambassador then took the stage to answer various questions from the crowd, which focused mainly on the issue of tourism. It appears that around 40,000 Korean tourists come to Israel each year, with great interests in the religious tourist sites. The number of Israelis visiting Korea every year is about 10,000, mainly for business purposes. To complete the conversation about tourism, Mr. Ilan Bahar talked about the upcoming travel book on Korea in Hebrew, which is due to be published next April, and his month long tour to Korea in past September.
The main show of the evening included a live Kimchi cooking session in front of the audience performed by Mrs. Moonkyung Son and Ms. Tzabarit Ezra, a former Israeli student at Yongsei University in Korea, and current business development manager, who also explained to the younger audience about business opportunities in Korea.
Later, the audience enjoyed a traditional Korean dinner, and had an opportunity to take pictures wearing the traditional Korean clothes, the Hanbok."
