Happy clappy on the midnight bus

Shlomo Carlebach fans kept the show going after his concert at Jerusalem's International Convention Center last Saturday ended by singing on the Route 74 bus, accompanied by a guitar.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Sarit Hadad 521 (photo credit: Courtesy/Yossi Zamir)
Sarit Hadad 521
(photo credit: Courtesy/Yossi Zamir)
■ At least one group of Carlebach fans who attended the Shlomo Carlebach memorial concert at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center last Saturday night kept singing and dancing long after the concert was over. They were singing as they boarded a Route 74 bus, and once inside added guitar accompaniment. Other passengers joined in. It was arguably the happiest, and hippie-est, midnight bus in Jerusalem.
The ICC was filled almost to capacity, and the throngs of enthusiastic dancers in the aisles created the impression that maybe the messiah had come. While other performers had been allocated one or two songs at the most, Shlomo Bar, who was the last performer before the grand finale, allowed himself four songs because he had had the privilege of performing together with Carlebach on more than one occasion.
So had some of the veterans who appeared on the program, but since Carlebach is part of their regular repertoire Bar was given carte blanche to the warm appreciation of the crowd, who didn’t seem to mind that the music developed a Moroccan lilt.
This year’s concert was a vast improvement over last year’s, when many members of the audience expressed disappointment. If the fervent dancing, community singing and applause were any indication, organizers went home this year knowing that they had hit the jackpot.
■ Children at Alyn Hospital were disappointed when they heard singer Sarit Hadad, who had been scheduled to join in the hospital’s five-day “Wheels of Love” fundraising bike ride, had to drop out after having sustained injuries in a car accident several weeks ago.
On learning how much they had hoped to see her and how downcast they were at the thought of missing out, Hadad’s immediate response was an offer to come and spend time with the children. She arrived the day prior to the start of the bike ride and went from room to room, meeting children individually, giving them a kiss and a cuddle and posing for photos with them. She also distributed gifts, which made the youngsters very happy. Hadad promised she would come back next year to participate in the 13th annual Wheels of Love. This year there were some 700 riders.
■ Meanwhile, former chief of General Staff Dan Halutz is likely to be among the hundreds of bike riders who on Saturday, November 19, will set off from Kibbutz Beit Kama in the Negev, some 15 minutes’ drive from Beersheba. They will be riding to raise public awareness of the need to integrate people with physical disabilities into mainstream society. There will be people with disabilities among the riders.
■ Trust WIN (Women’s Interfaith Network), headed by Elana Rozenman, is honoring the memories of those mothers who perished in the Carmel Forest fire a year ago by inaugurating the Garden of the Mothers next to the Daliat al-Carmel Cultural Center, not far from the site of the fire. The occasion will also be used to mark the 10th anniversary of women’s-interfaith activities in the north of the country, although both men and women will be participating in both events.
Jerusalemites interested in attending can join the special bus that will depart from the parking lot for buses at the Liberty Bell Park at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23. The bus will return at 8:30 p.m. The round-trip fare is NIS 50.