An excellent singer can deliver a good performance anywhere and at any time, regardless of his or her mood. But when you have three first-class soloists, each with an amazing voice, with an incredible vocal range and the ability to hold a note for a long time, plus the fact that they have a strong affection for each other and really enjoy singing with each other in different genres, it becomes a magnificent jam session.
At Emunah Jerusalem’s 17th annual Jerusalem of Harmony concert, the trio absolutely outdid themselves, partially because it was a farewell tribute to Renee Becker, who had devoted more than half a century of her life to Emunah and had been the organizer of the previous 16 concerts.
Wanting to be closer to their children and grandchildren, she and her husband, Laurence, have moved from Jerusalem to their new home in Yad Binyamin.
In addition to the three tenors, Cantors Simon Cohen and Shai Abramson, plus a somewhat younger star, Chaim Zippel, others on stage at the Henry Crown Auditorium in the Jerusalem Theater complex included composer, arranger, and pianist Raymond Goldstein, who played the piano; the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marc Temerlies; the Hallelu Choir, conducted by Shalom Kinori; highly talented violinist Ma’ayan Cavenor; and comperes Richard Shavei Zion and Ido Tauber.
Singers and musicians almost always perform better when there’s a large audience. This time it was a full house, which was usually the case at Emunah Jerusalem concerts.
The program included a mix of liturgy, classics, and pop, but what was particularly moving was Simon Cohen’s rendition of “My Yiddishe Momme” in memory of his mother, who died a year ago, just before the concert.
Cohen, who has appeared in almost every one of the concerts in the series, had to back out at the last minute. But on Monday night, he sang a soul-stirring rendition of “My Yiddishe Momme,” first in Yiddish, then in English. Toward the end of the evening, he sang a delightful tribute in English to Becker to the tune of “Jerusalem of Gold.”
Proceeds from the event went to the Emunah College pre-academic program for young women who had difficulty for a variety of reasons in completing high school, but wanted to go on to university.
A brief video in which some of the students introduced themselves featured an articulate student who had been held back at school due to delayed development. Her teachers had not been very helpful until she enrolled at Emunah, where her teachers took the trouble to explain everything to her in a manner that she could understand, with the result that she has made remarkable progress.
Ahavat Hashem Gordon rings bell on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
Just a few days after beating his boastful, anti-Israel Turkish opponent in Lithuania, Israel’s champion kickboxer, Ahavat Hashem Gordon, was once more in the limelight, this time closer to home and in a different sport altogether – the money game. Last week he rang the opening bell for trading to begin at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Narendra Modi visits Israel
Among the many broadcasters who joined the throng who commented or reported on the visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one who wondered what Modi would think when he saw the number of portraits of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson pasted along every highway and in many streets.
For the benefit of those readers who might not know, Schneerson, who died in 1994, was childless, the seventh and last spiritual leader in the Chabad dynasty, but there are more Chabadniks (members of the Chabad movement) in the world today than when he died.
There is a messianic sector of Chabad that believes that the Rebbe was the Messiah and that he will return. While the Rebbe’s knowledge, wisdom, and influence are acknowledged way beyond Chabad circles, most of the Jewish world does not regard him as the Messiah.
The Chabadniks who believe that Schneerson is the messiah are extremely fervent in their belief, and they are mostly the ones who put up his posters all over the place. It’s quite amazing how Chabad has flourished without a leader who at least has part of the DNA of the Rebbe’s extended family.
But getting back to Prime Minister Modi, he is certainly aware of Chabad, which is active in India in addition to most other countries, and he is conscious of the terrorist attack on Chabad House in Mumbai in 2008, so perhaps he took it for granted that portraits of the Rebbe would be prominently displayed during his visit.
Much more in line with the visit was the tribute paid to India’s national colors of orange, white, and green. Sara Netanyahu wore an orange-colored pantsuit to the airport to join her husband in meeting and greeting Modi.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana wore a green tie, and National Missions Minister Orit Strock was both patriotic and honoring the guest in her choice of blue and white attire in the exact hues of the Israeli flag.
Although he apologized in advance to Christian television viewers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled Modi’s previous visit eight years ago, when the two prime ministers had removed their shoes and had literally walked on water with the aid of technology.
During Modi’s visit to the Knesset, Ohana gushed with pride. While the Indian prime minister was deserving of all the compliments paid to him, he could have done without the embarrassing display of musical chairs when the opposition members who boycotted the event due to the yet-again exclusion from the invitation list of Chief Justice Isaac Amit entered to claim their seats only just before Modi’s address, which meant that all the former MKs had to move.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid mounted the rostrum to explain that this had nothing to do with Narendra per se. Modi understood and accepted the explanation.
Battle over Jewish identity at the Western Wall
It has been previously asked in Grapevine whether Israel is on the way to becoming a theocracy. For instance, legislation giving greater power to the Chief Rabbinate was recently advanced. If passed after a final reading. It will give the rabbinate greater influence and control over the lives of people of the Jewish faith, including those who are totally secular.
Thus, when divorce cases come up, the rabbinical court can decide to rule against the application, even when a couple agrees amongst themselves to go their separate ways.
What this means in essence is that the wife cannot get married again until there is a divorce, whereas there are certain conditions that enable a husband whose wife refuses to accept a divorce to remarry, even without an official divorce.
The ongoing decades-long battle over monthly women’s services at the Western Wall has not abated, even though the women have continued to meet, defying physical attacks by ultra-Orthodox men and women.
A law was passed that a Torah scroll could not be brought into the women’s section, and more recently, the whole purpose of having a far-off section of the Western Wall designated for Conservative, Reform, and other non-Orthodox Jews is being ignored. What happened to the slogan “Together we will win?”
Has anyone bothered to find out how many of the six million Jews who perished or were murdered during the Holocaust were non-Orthodox? Should they be subtracted from the number that we mourn? A Jew is a Jew regardless of which of the Jewish denominations he or she follows, if at all, and no other Jew, no matter how learned or how high in rank, has the right to disqualify from the tribe someone who was born Jewish or who voluntarily converted to Judaism.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King said on KAN 11 television several days ago that he does not recognize members of the Reform Movement as Jews. True, the Reform Movement recognizes the offspring of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother as Jews, which is problematic from a halachic standpoint, but what about all the members of Reform congregations who are the offspring of Jewish mothers? They are unquestionably Jewish.
The ultra-Orthodox, who refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, would not have access to the Western Wall, much less control it, were it not for IDF soldiers who reclaimed it during the Six Day War in 1967. Likewise, there would not be a state of Israel if the secular David Ben-Gurion had not proclaimed its sovereignty in 1948. Before that, there was no great rush of Jewish immigrants other than Holocaust survivors.
As for Women of the Wall, MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv (Democrats), a reform rabbi, has championed them for years and even smuggled Torah scrolls to them.
The Women of the Wall represent the spirit of Jewish unity as they include members of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist denominations who all pray together at the beginning of each new Hebrew calendar month.
The bill giving more power to the rabbinate in all matters related to the Western Wall was proposed as a private member’s bill by MK Avi Maoz on Wednesday morning and passed its preliminary reading. Kariv subsequently issued a statement in which he said:
“The insane bill by Avi Maoz that passed its preliminary reading turns anyone who doesn’t obey the Chief Rabbinate into a criminal who should be thrown in jail.
This isn’t just a law against Reform Jews and the Western Wall; it is only the beginning. It’s a law against any Jew who isn’t Haredi or ultranationalist, and its impact will extend far beyond matters concerning the Western Wall.”
“We will fight this extremist law with all our strength, together with the majority of the secular and traditional Israeli public and with the majority of Jews around the world.”
“We will not allow Avi Maoz and Benjamin Netanyahu to spit in the faces of our brothers and sisters around the world, who, at a time when they are confronting an unprecedented wave of antisemitism, are being stabbed in the back by the Israeli government and the coalition.”
Soon after the first reading of the bill was passed, the Rabbinical Assembly posted an online petition urging the Jewish public to protect the egalitarian Kotel and to take immediate action.
The petition states that the bill would transfer all prayer at the Western Wall to the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, and this will minimize religious services that do not conform to its standards and will effectively dismantle the egalitarian Kotel. If the bill is enacted, millions of Israeli and Diaspora Jews would lose meaningful access to worship.”
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