After rising to fame as the runner up on the Israeli version of American Idol (Kochav Nolad) Shiri Maimon has quickly become one of Israel's best known pop and R&B superstars. Her self-titled debut album went gold in 2005 and her fame has only increased since. Now the star of a popular Israeli soap opera, Yeladot Ra'ot (Bad Girls), Shiri returns to her roots on this Israeli tour, playing a number of summer concerts at venues throughout the country. Catch her Thursday night at the Ma'abada.

The Israel Museum celebrates its namesake’s 60th birthday with this retrospective of the country’s visual arts scene over the past 10 years, including works by Guy Ben-Ner, Sigalit Landau, Adi Nes, Yehudit Sasportas, Eliezer Sonnenshein and Gal Weinstein. The exhibit, which runs through August 30, examines how the artists have responded to changes taking place both inside Israel and in the outside world, noting with pleasure the growing prestige and impact Israeli artists are enjoying on the international arts scene.

New immigrants in a special concert celebrating 60 years of independence. Appropriately, the performance piece will be the cantata, "By Right of Mother, Son, and Jerusalem," for soprano, trumpet, and a speaker. The text will be read by Uri Zvi Grinberg with a Russian translation by Michael Polsky and the music will be conducted by Michael Bendikov. The orchestra includes Elina Yanovizki, Pavel Levin Ekaterina Shapelnikov, Alina Keitlin, and Anna Yofe on violins; Tatiana Geisman and Andrei Shapelnikov on violas; Vladimir Geisman on cello, Vladimir Rivkin on double bass, Michael Altchuler on French horn, and Shimon Bendikov on clarinet. Final concert of the season!

The good people at the Train Theater are convinced that kids don't need the gape-mouthed stimulation TV and video games provide to stay entertained. They believe in entertaining children the time-tested old-fashioned way: with large and often somewhat alarmingly avant-garde puppets and plenty of sing-song. For very young children, between the ages of 2 and 4, the Train Theater puts on several Story Theater shows each month, which feature one of the Theater's stable of storytellers using the prop room's more kid-friendly puppets to tell simple and educational stories, often with audience participation. The stories are presented in Hebrew.