From Rehavia to Nahlaot

This weekend’s musical series at Kfar Blum is dedicated to the sights and sounds of the Holy City.

By BARRY DAVIS
VETERAN LOCAL actor Gavri Banai (left), together with his musician son Uri, will take part in the current musical weekend series at Kfar Blum (photo credit: MICHAEL TOPOL)
VETERAN LOCAL actor Gavri Banai (left), together with his musician son Uri, will take part in the current musical weekend series at Kfar Blum
(photo credit: MICHAEL TOPOL)
The next slot in the current musical weekend series at Kfar Blum should look and sound familiar to Jerusalemites, and to anyone with some knowledge of the capital’s cultural backdrop and ethnic evolution.
The From Rehavia to Nahlaot weekend takes place at the Pastoral Hotel at the northern kibbutz January 14-16 and features a string of top names from various areas of entertainment pursuit. Raconteur extraordinaire Yossi Alfi will regale the audience with tales gleaned from Jerusalem folklore, that evoke the sights, smells and colors of the city’s streets, stores, synagogues, marketplaces and, above all, people.
Alfi’s storytelling will be complemented by renditions of musical Jerusalem ditties courtesy of the Tzanchani three-sibling group, which should be familiar to Jacob’s Ladder Festival attendees.
No event based on the human and cultural history of Jerusalem could be complete without some mention of the Banai family, one of the country’s greatest artistic dynasties which traces its Jerusalem roots back to the 19th century. 75-year-old Gavri Banai, best known as a member of the iconic comic threesome Hagashash Hahiver, together with his musician son Uri, will take the Kfar Blum audience through the streets and alleyways of his childhood neighborhood of Mahane Yehuda, with colorful, humorous stories about the characters of yesteryear Jerusalem. Father and son will also perform songs Banai Sr. first sang as a member of Nahal IDF entertainment troupe, as well as with Sixties folk-pop group Hatarnegolim, and later with Hagashash Hahiver.
The longstanding cultural rivalry between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will also be addressed, at a discussion- musical confluence between musician Niv Kaufman and 80-yearold playwright, songwriter, author and researcher Dan Almagor, and veteran author, journalist and TV personality Eliezer Ya’ari will shed some light on some of Jerusalem’s neighbors from the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods of Sur Bahir and Umm Tuba.
For more information: (04) 683- 6611 and www.kfarblum-hotel.co.il.