Passing it on

Hakova Hahafuch, which will stage the Love Festival this week, raises money through cultural projects to support social causes

By BARRY DAVIS
electric hakova hahafuch (photo credit: Courtesy)
electric hakova hahafuch
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A couple and a half millennia ago Confucius astutely observed that “life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” It is a sentiment with which Hanan Rubin agrees wholeheartedly.
For the past seven years 30-year-old Rubin has been actively promoting something he neatly terms “fun raising.”
The endeavor is channeled through the Hakova Hahafuch (Pass the Hat) non-profit organization, which puts on cultural activities for the benefit of one and all – the cultural consumer at large, up-and-coming performing artists and, most importantly, all sorts of social projects that could do with some financial assistance.
On Thursday, the Ginot Ha’ir Community Council Center, at Beit Yehudit off Emek Refaim Street, will host the third annual Tu Be’av Love Festival as a co-production with the Ma’aleh Film School in Musrara. Hakova Hahafuch will contribute its pennyworth with an ever-popular community singing slot. The big draw of the program is the Quartet show, with stellar veteran pop performers Alon Olearchik and Ephraim Shamir, who came to fame as part of the seminal Kaveret pop group of the 1970s, and Shem Tov Levy and Shlomo Yidov who, along with Shlomo Gronich, comprised 1974 groundbreaking trio Ktzat Aheret.
“There is something really cool about renewing the Tu Be’av tradition which dates back to the time of the Mishna,” says Ma’aleh Film School director Neta Ariel. “This is a festival that engages in love and connects culture and Judaism, and is suitable for all kinds of sectors of the public. That’s what charmed me when we founded this festival, and the fact that it is now in its third year makes this event a tradition and something people look forward to.”
Rubin says that the idea for Hakova Hahafuch came from a need for instantaneous gratification.
“When I got out of the army, in 2005, I was really up for doing good deeds and helping others,” he recalls. “I came from a good background – Rehavia, Katamon, people who voted for the National Religious Party. There was a bunch of us, from similar backgrounds, who finished the army at the same time and I said let’s get something going, let’s do something to help others. They were interested but either they didn’t have the time, or they had other plans. So I realized I needed an instant solution, something that would convince my friends to do something, but that would also benefit others.”
Despite his newly discovered here-and-now ethos, Rubin also realized he wanted to develop something that would have long-term impact.
“We could have all gone along to a senior citizens’ home to entertain the residents and everyone would have gone home happy,” he continues. “That would have been great, but inadequate.”
A more direct and practical approach was required.
“I asked myself, what can I do for people that they really need? The answer I arrived at – which is still relevant today – is some sort of cultural enrichment. Back then, everyone said there was nowhere to go out to in Jerusalem, and there was nothing to see. So I wanted to provide a solution for that need.”
From the outset, the philosophy was “keep it simple.”
“The idea was based on the belief that if things are too complicated it is because I am too complicated,” explains Rubin, noting that he hit on a truly pioneering concept.
“You know there is the Kickstarter organization which started this thing they call ‘crowd funding,’ whereby lots of people invest small amounts in something and together they accumulate a large sum of money. That started up in 2010, and I thought of this long before that. I’m sorry I didn’t put my idea on the Internet at the time.”
Keeping things simple also means cutting down on running costs and passing on as much of the monetary benefit of the activities to the needy end user.
“We put in a couple of hours or so of work a week into this,” says Rubin. “You have all these charity organizations whereby a high percentage of the funds they raise goes to maintaining the whole operating mechanism.
We don’t have that.”
There is another aspect to the Rubin fun-raising take which, he believes, offers donors that instantaneous sense of having done something for someone.
“Today, people don’t just want to feel good with themselves,” he proffers, “most people want some return on their generosity.”
Rubin married that realization with the cultural vacuum he discerned in Jerusalem at the time.
“That’s how Hakova Hahafuch came about. There’s no big secret here or complex idea that you’d want to patent. We say people like community singing, all kinds of shows, whatever, and there’s a large sector of the public that want to enjoy cultural activities and there’s nothing available for them. So that’s what I offer them.”
It is a multiple-way street in which everyone comes out on top.
“There are plenty of young artists and bands that people don’t know about, but are looking for a stage to show the public what they can do,” Rubin continues. “I won’t bring, say, Ehud Banai, because he’s an established star.”
Booking Banai’s services would also cost Rubin an arm and a leg.
“That’s true, lesser-known artists don’t cost too much and I can give them an opportunity for exposure.”
Then again, that leaves the job of bringing the crowds in to see an unknown. Rubin has got that covered too.
“Israelis are masters of improvisation in daily life, but when it comes to spending their money on entertainment, they want to know what they are going to get. So I tell them they are going to see some unknown band but it will perform all kinds of material they know well, like Ehud Banai songs. It’s a win-win situation.”
It certainly is, as is borne out by the fact that, since its inception, through its cultural enterprise Hakova Hahafuch has raised over half a million shekels for all sorts of worthy causes.
“We have been putting on events, on average, around once a month since we started out in 2005,” says Rubin, adding that Hakova Hahafuch events are offered at highly affordable prices.
“Tickets cost NIS 20 or maybe NIS 30, depending on the scale of the show. It really is a matter of the more the merrier – the more people who come the more money we raise and the more the beneficiary gets.”
The proof of the pudding has been there for all to see, consistently, over the past seven years.
“All the money we have raised and passed on comes from an accumulation of very small amounts,” Rubin continues, “and everyone gets something out of it. I don’t believe in doing something for nothing. If you give something you have to get a return. I have a team of eight volunteers who organize things, process applications for funding etc. I didn’t recruit any of them, they all offered their services for one reason or another – one might want the experience to go into their CV, another might want to get into the young arts scene in Jerusalem and someone else might want to do it just to feel good about themselves.”
Rubin also falls into the latter category.
For more information about the Tu Be’av Love Festival: 02 566-4144 and www.ginothair.org.il.

For more information about Hakova Hahafuch: 054 598-7675, hakovah@gmail.org and www.hakovah.org.