Something for everyone

Outgoing Beit Avi Chai director Danny Danieli talks about setting up a cultural center that provokes thought and entertainment – but not controversy – in a city like Jerusalem.

By BARRY DAVIS
Daniel Danieli (photo credit: Courtesy)
Daniel Danieli
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The cultural-social scene in Jerusalem received a serious boost just over six years ago with the founding of Beit Avi Chai. Since then, the establishment has become an important fixture in the capital, offering a wide range of lectures, debates, exhibitions and all manner of entertainment items, including music from numerous genres, all with an underlying Jewish theme.
The person who has steered Beit Avi Chai through its first years, manager Danny Danieli, is about to move on to pastures new, and he can now look back and assess his and the institution’s contribution to the local and national cultural scene.
Danieli has put a lot into his work, and expresses some regret about leaving. “I have been through the full gamut of emotions – sadness, joy, doubts,” he says. The same emotions and thoughts could be easily associated with the onset of parenthood, I suggest.
“You know, there is some similarity there,” Danieli concurs. “I have put a lot into this child, but it has grown up a lot and it is time to let it go, and let the parent go too.”
It is the human interaction that Danieli will miss most when he leaves his post to make way for incoming manager David Rosenson. “At the end of the day, it is hardest to leave the people behind,” he says. “I can quite easily handle leaving a building and the content I have worked with, but I have imagined not seeing all these wonderful people here on a day-today basis, and that is hard. I am sure our paths will cross further down the line, but I have enjoyed working with them. They have been amazing.”
Danieli came in from the outside, having first worked for the Avi Chai Foundation from his base in Netanya. In the cold hard light of day, trying to establish an institution part of whose purview is to bring different sectors of this city’s expansive and often troubled cultural, religious and social fiber together – or at least to devise a modus vivendi for all concerned – sounds like quite a challenging nut to crack.
“I have never tried to unify the different camps here,” he says. “That is not Beit Avi Chai’s role. That’s the job, say, of [apolitical reconciliation organization] Tzav Pius. I am a cultural center, I am not a unification center. We offer cultural programs and events for everyone. We say to people: come here with your own baggage, all the things you have grown up with and believe in, enjoy what we have to offer you and go back to your beliefs and opinions. That’s fine.”
That, says Danieli, is reward enough for his work.
“It is heartening to see people from so many walks of life, religious leanings, political opinions and cultures coming to Beit Avi Chai. But we do not aim to unify people. The aim is to create a world of content which we believe addresses every Jewish Israeli – not [only] Jerusalemites – with all the diversity that exists between people who come here, and that is probably the beauty of Beit Avi Chai. Our job is only to create a common cultural domain.”
Danieli says he had a good idea of what he was getting himself into before he set off to Jerusalem.
“When I was offered this job, I considered it very carefully.
My wife was supportive but I had friends who suggested I’d be crazy to go for it, for all sorts of reasons.
A good friend said there was no need for another Jewish Israeli cultural institution in Jerusalem.
There were already places like Confederation House, Beit Shmuel, the Van Leer Institute, the Begin Heritage Center and Yad Ben-Zvi.”
But at the end of the day he felt there was work to be done in Jerusalem and he soon set about putting together inviting and sometimes quite provocative events at Beit Avi Chai. The weekly Kalabat Shabbat slot, which was fronted by popular media personality Jacky Levy and ran for four years, took a left-field approach to the weekly Torah portion. Danieli says it is important to test the waters rather than just dishing up content that sits easily with all and sundry.
“We ran the Para Shehuta (slaughtered cow) show [The Incubator Theater production which has now moved to Beit Mazia] for a year, which takes things much further. It’s a hard-hitting satire.”
Although he is not Orthodox, Danieli is well-versed in Jewish scripture and was one of the first non- Orthodox students at the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish Education in Jerusalem. “When I open up the Bible or the Talmud, the one thing that makes me the most proud about Judaism is that there is no blind adulation or deification of the leading personalities in our religion,” he says. “I think Judaism is the only monotheistic religion which allows you to look at the great leaders in an open way, warts and all.
There is a lot of self-criticism and humor in Judaism.
All our forefathers and kings were treated as human beings, even when they did great things.
“ I think you have a problem if your religion does not take a human perspective, and I think that is a very important part of what we do here at Beit Avi Chai. When we look at God or some important figure on the stage, in sketches and all sorts of productions, and we do that in a humorous way, I think is very important.”
Despite his rejection of the idea that Beit Avi Chai tries to unite the various religious and social camps in this multifaceted and oft-troubled city, Danieli believes that – to borrow an iconic Reader’s Digest line – humor is the best medicine.
“Beit Avi Chai is not here to pander to people’s opinions.
I think you can use humor to engender a sense of belonging,” he muses. He is keenly aware, however, that he may sometimes be treading on thin ice. “I admit that when Kalabat Shabbat started I was anxious about the possible reaction we might get from certain quarters of the public, particularly from the religious, and I was even more nervous over Para Shehuta. But I discovered that, especially among the national-religious sector, people are hungry for alternative takes on religion. Both those shows were great successes.”
Beit Avi Chai offers much more than just biting satire, however; there are regular art exhibitions, lectures, study sessions and musical programs – from ethnic to jazz – that bring in large crowds from Jerusalem and around the country. There are also outreach efforts, with cultural events held all over Israel.
“That is an important part of what we do,” notes Danieli. “Beit Avi Chai is a major cultural institution for the whole of Israel, not just Jerusalem.”
Danieli says he is looking forward to a smooth handover to Rosenson, and to the challenges that lie ahead.
“I hope my next stop will enable me to fully utilize my skills and the experience I have accumulated. I love setting up and developing new ventures.