The Grapevine: Remembering the Carlebachs

There will be study programs in accordance with Carlebach’s teachings at Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo at 18 Hagilboa Street, near Mahaneh Yehuda.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach 311 (photo credit: courtesy: PR)
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach 311
(photo credit: courtesy: PR)
The mega concert usually held at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on the Saturday night closest to the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach will not be held this year, but there will be smaller concerts in venues in Israel and beyond where Carlebach fans congregate.
Among the Israel events will be concerts in Jerusalem this coming Sunday night, October 20, at Ohel Rivka, 15 Harlap Street, with Rabbis Chizki Sofer, Shmuel Zivan, Meshulam Brandwein, Moshe Shai and Uzi Schwietze, which is geared to Hebrew-speakers; Yakar, 10 Halamed Hey Street, with Yehuda Katz, Shlomo Katz and others, which is billed as an “evening of Torah, songs and stories with the Carlebach chevre”; and Kol Rina, 26 Beersheba Street in Nahlaot, with Chaim Dovid, Naftali Abramson and others. The Jerusalem Folk Club is also hosting a Carlebach sing-along at 15 Rabbi Pinchas Kehati Street in Givat Shaul, with Bruce Brill and other musicians.
Earlier in the day, Carlebach’s relatives, friends and followers will gather at Har Hamenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem for a memorial service led by Rabbi Sofer. As they do each year, participants will gather around the grave and on the adjacent road, and sing Carlebach’s songs, share his teachings and reminisce about him.
On Sunday morning, there will be study programs in accordance with Carlebach’s teachings at Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo at 18 Hagilboa Street, near Mahaneh Yehuda.
There will also be a special Carlebach Shabbat this weekend in the Old City, where participants will join in Friday night prayers at the Western Wall, dine at Yeshivat Hakotel, spend Saturday in prayer and song at Isralight on Misgav Ladach Street, and complete the tribute with a melave malka, with Chaim Dovid and other wellknown exponents of Carlebach melodies leading the singing.
■ ANOTHER CARLEBACH came to mind this week – a cousin of the singing rabbi who was no less talented, but whose forte was in journalism. Azriel Carlebach, for whom a street is named in Tel Aviv, was the founding editor of Ma’ariv, which this week moved its headquarters from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem’s Malha Technology Park. The old Ma’ariv building, which has been a Tel Aviv landmark for decades, will be gutted, and in its place will be a huge, high-rise office block. Future generations are unlikely to associate Carlebach Street, which runs across one side of the building, with Azriel Carlebach – even though his full name appears on the street signs – and will think it was named for Shlomo.
The local media, in reporting Ma’ariv’s move to Jerusalem, stated that it was the first major newspaper to move to the capital.
Hello... The Jerusalem Post, which is arguably better-known worldwide than Ma’ariv and is frequently quoted by many international publications, has been operating in Jerusalem since December 1932.
For many years, the Post was the only daily English-language broadsheet published and printed in Jerusalem, or for that matter, in Israel. While it is no longer printed in the capital, its editorial offices remain there. There have been attempts on the part of different owners to move the paper elsewhere, but they have quickly realized that a publication with the word “Jerusalem” incorporated in its masthead must be situated in Jerusalem.
There are other English-language periodicals published in the city, and in the Internet era there are many English-language websites whose writers largely report from Israel, but the Post, both in tactile form and on the Web, is still the best-known brand name.
■ ALL THE world loves a wedding, and if not a wedding at least a fascinating display of bridal gowns, each with a history of its own.
Judging by the number of guests at a recent exhibition – somewhere in the range of 400 – it could very well have been a wedding. Indeed, the title, “Here Comes the Bride...” suggested that it was.
Created in collaboration with the fashion design department at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, the exhibition, which was part of events incorporated into the meeting of the International Board of Governors of Beit Hatfutsot, was a glittering occasion in more ways than one. Hosted by Gideon Hamburger and Irit Admoni Perlman, chairman and director respectively of the Israel Friends of Beit Hatfutsot, it exemplified the way in which the traditions of yesteryear and the geography in which those traditions were nurtured can influence the creative forces of today.
Each gown had its own inspirational story, with concepts derived from Poland, Greece, Yemen, Turkey, Spain, Iraq, Germany, Morocco and Algeria. The gowns were designed by 14 third-year Shenkar fashion students. Each gown has a placard behind it with the designer’s explanation of the source of inspiration and the fabrics used. In addition, in the lobby, there is a video screening on one of the walls in which some of the designers talk about their creations, which are given added value when worn by models.
Thus, guests got to see both the passive display in the exhibition hall and the active display on video, featuring the designers with beautiful models literally breathing life into each gown. As eye-catching and impressive as the exhibition was, the dresses developed a more majestic aura when worn by the stunning models.
Seen in the enthusiastic crowd of Friends of Beit Hatfutsot were: Irina Nevzlin Kogan, chairwoman of Beit Hatfutsot’s board of directors; Beit Hatfutsot CEO Dan Tadmor; Spanish Ambassador Fernando Carderera Soler; Karen Bergof the Kabbalah Center; Motty Reif (who invited her to the opening event); Janice Gillerman and her daughter, Karen Gillerman Harel; Lizika and Ami Sagi; Eitan Ben-Eliyahu; Hanna and Benny Pri- Zan; Ziva and Shalom Zeidler; Etty and Gad Propper; Leah Perez, head of Shenkar’s Fashion Design Faculty;Gilat Ankori; Talya and Gad Zevi; Tal and Ilan Birenfeld; fashion designers Raziella Gershon and Sasson Kedem; and many others.
■ THERE WERE lots of celebrities at the residence of Italian Ambassador Francesco Maria Talo last week, for the launch of the luxury Pomellato jewelry collection by local representative Chronotime. Pomellato, founded in Milan in 1967 by Pino Rabolini, is one of the top five European jewelers in terms of sales.
Obviously the fashion world was wellrepresented, but so was the entertainment community as well as by the business community, which is allied in some way with fashion or entertainment or both. A notable exception among the guests was MK Faina Kirschenbaum – but then indirectly as she fit in very well, being that she is always well-dressed and well-groomed, and that the Knesset is occasionally the best show in town.
Among the other guests were Yaffit “Gimmel Yaffit” Greenberg, Einat Sarouf, Ronit Fishman, former beauty queen Ravit Asaf, Daniella Reibenbach, Lynn Chajaj, Zohar Jacobson, Shirly Ben- Mordechai, Annette Flatto Sharon, Orit Benvenisti, Assaf and Miri Tuchmeir, Roni Mena, Dana Ashkenazi, Eli Tabib, Galit Farber and many other well-known personalities. In charge of the culinary aspect of the event was celebrity chef Aviv Moshe.
■ AFTER A distinguished career as dean of the Hebrew University Law Faculty, attorney- general and president of the Supreme Court, Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor Aharon Barak, who in 1975 at the age of 38 was one of the youngest of Israel Prize laureates, received yet another award to add to his many prizes. Barak, whose best award was in discovering there are life and career options after retirement from the Supreme Court, is now a law professor at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He is also a law lecturer at Hebrew University, Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Toronto Law Faculty.
And oh yes, he continues to receive prizes – and last week was the recipient of the Nadav Foundation’s Peoplehood Award. The award was presented to him by foundation founder Leonid Nevzlin, in the course of a three-day conference on democracy and freedom of the press – which Barak not only upholds but enhanced during the period of his Supreme Court presidency. The conference was held at the Cramim Resort & Spa Hotel in Kiryat Anavim, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Nevzlin’s aliya.
Previous recipients of the Nadav award have been Prof. Yehezkiel Dror, Joseph Cedar, Prof. Elie Wiesel and Avishai Cohen. Participants in the conference included retired Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner, who is president of the Israeli Press Council; IDC president Prof.
Uriel Reichman; law professor and former education minister Amnon Rubinstein; Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales; chess champion Garry Kasparov; and many senior lawyers and journalists.
■ SEVERAL EMBASSIES, in addition to having their own spokespeople, employ external public relations agencies. Among the embassies which use outside help is the Royal Netherlands Embassy. But when it comes to spreading the good word about another country or diplomat, or in this case quasi-diplomat, Dutch Ambassador Caspar Veldkamp is quite a competent PR man himself.
In what could only be described as a press release, Veldkamp wrote in an email: “The only member state of the EU not represented in Israel with an embassy is Luxembourg. The grand duchy does not have any political reason for this, but the country is too tiny to have embassies all over the world. However, it has an arrangement with the other countries of the Benelux group of nations (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) on its external representation. Based on a 1964 treaty, the Netherlands represents Luxembourg on diplomatic matters wherever the grand duchy does not have an embassy.
Belgium does so on consular affairs.
“In addition, Luxembourg does have an honorary consul in Israel. His name is Miron C. Izakson, and he is a special man. He is a professor of literature at Bar- Ilan University and a renowned poet. He has published eight books of poetry and four novels. Seven of his books have been published in Europe and the US, including poetry collections in French and Norwegian.
Four selections of his poetry have been set to music and released as CDs.
Prof. Izakson was awarded the President’s Prize in 2001.”
The email continues that on October 21, the Ra’anana Symphonette Orchestra will open its season with poems composed by Izakson, performed by Israeli singers and a young choir. It goes without saying that Veldkamp and his wife, Anne, will be present to applaud.
■ OLD SOLDIERS never die, they just fade away, said Gen. Douglas MacArthur in his April 1951 farewell speech to Congress.
There were lots of old soldiers who came to swap memories at the IDF 890th Battalion reunion this week at the Jerusalem International Convention Center.
The 890th Battalion was Israel’s first airborne commando battalion, which counted among its commanders Ariel Sharon, Mota Gur, Rafael Eitan, Yitzhak Mordechai, Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya’alon, who is currently defense minister.
Paratroopers from other battalions who had a connection with 890 were also there – among them former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak, and current Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen.
Benny Gantz. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who will celebrate his 64th birthday next week and likewise has an impressive military history, was also there.
Most of the speeches were related to the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Ya’alon, who was a keynote speaker, stated that even though Israel is a nation that craves peace, it is always prepared for war.
Apropos Gantz, following Friday night dinner in a private home last weekend, he was returning to his own home when he came across a traffic accident in the vicinity of Ashdod. Gantz and his bodyguards reacted spontaneously, instantly pulling the driver out of the wreckage and administering first aid until an ambulance arrived. It was not the first time that Gantz responded in such a manner to emergency situations in both military and civilian circumstances. He has quite a history of racing to the rescue.
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