Heritage takes center stage at 'A Stage for Arab-Hebrew Culture'
Ana Min el-Yahud (I Am from the Jews) at the Jaffa Theater blends Iraqi heritage with Israeli life
By BARRY DAVISA scene from ‘I am From the Jews.’ August 2020. (photo credit: SHLOMI PRIN)
The issue of roots, tradition, heritage and other personal derivational affairs is very much front and center in the forthcoming performances of Ana Min el-Yahud (I Am from the Jews) at the Jaffa Theater – A Stage for Arab-Hebrew Culture (August 29, 31 and September 1, all 8:30 p.m.).The play, written by Ilanit Suissa and directed by Sinai Peter, and performed by a young cast of graduates of the Arts Faculty of the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, has a strong attraction for Yair Dallal as the main character – Hezi – like Dallal, is the offspring of Iraqi-born parents. Unlike Dallal, however, Hezi’s parents immigrated to Israel when they were small, hence Hezi’s sketchy bond with Iraqi culture and, more pertinent, the Iraqi dialect of Arabic.“My parents were adults when they came here,” says Dallal who has been an internationally acclaimed purveyor of Arabic music for over four decades.Dallal, who in pre-coronavirus times spent more time abroad than in the country, performing at festivals and leading cultural venues across the globe, plays violin and oud, and occasionally does a spot as a vocalist. The brains, skill and heart behind the play’s score, the 65-yearold artist feels the principle notion behind Suissa’s work is, today, more relevant than ever.“Ana Min el-Yahud is a play that was inspired by the book [of the same name] by Almog Behar,” Dallal explains. “He decided to depict his Iraqi connections, even though he is not a pure Iraqi,” he adds with a laugh. Actually, the 41–year-old award-winning writer is of mixed Iraqi-Turkish descent so he is not too far away from the requisite cultural mind-set.The storyline of the book, and play, is somewhat surreal, with clear political undertones. The theatrical work, which is basically a comedy, takes a swipe at Zionism’s intent to eradicate any form of “extraneous” lines of thought in the early years of the state. Back then you couldn’t, for instance, get a job with national broadcasting corporation The Voice of Israel with a name like Goldberg or Azulai. The former may have been Hebraicized to Har Zahav – a straight translation from German into Hebrew – while Azulai, a Moroccan surname, could have ended up as anything, as long as it smacked of the good old blue-and-white.“The subject matter is highly relevant and, I would even say, with hindsight, it is relevant out of a sense of pain,” Dallal notes. While the base tenet may have been well-intentioned, the musician mourns the source cultural baggage that was forcibly, and sometimes willingly, offloaded by immigrants and the second generation.Dallal was also guilty of distancing himself from his parents’ cultural backdrop as, in his teenage years and on into his 20s, he preferred Western artistic endeavor to the sonic backdrop his parents brought with them from Baghdad. He set out on his active musical journey with the blues, preferring the electric guitar before reconnecting with his familial roots and beginning to dig into the rich seams that run through the Arabic musical world.“I heard Arabic at home and, luckily, I returned to that quite quickly,” says Dallal. “But my sister, who is two years younger than me, didn’t do that. She doesn’t speak Arabic, which is a shame.”Ana Min el-Yahud conveys something of that line of thought in comical fashion, as Hezi, and thereafter a whole gallery of characters, from across a broad sweep of ethnic quarters suddenly revert to familial type. A sort of Tower of Babylon scenario ensues, with the developing bedlam leading to plenty of fun and games.Dallal, naturally, hopes the public enjoys the show but would also dearly like us to leave the Jaffa Theater open-air venue with some food for thought.“This play is not just about entertainment, there is an important message in there too,” he says. “I would like people to hang on to their language and culture. Culture is something deep and enriches our lives and our world.”The musician would like that ethos to be taken to heart by the national educational powers that be.“Where’s Ladino, and Aramaic? They are disappearing. Aramaic is such a fundamental language for us [Hebrew speakers], but it was left to die. There are maybe 100 songs written down in Ladino. That’s great. But Aramaic is a bedrock of our culture. The Talmud is written in Aramaic.”Dallal has a point.“I think high school students should be offered different language options, which languages to learn. If, for example, a student wants to learn Yemenite, they should get them a teacher for that. If someone wants to learn Kabbalistic Aramaic they should make that happen.”This, as far as Dallal is concerned, is not just a fanciful idea of spreading the formal education curriculum. He feels eclecticism informs Israeli culture, and should be allowed to continue doing so.Diminutive size notwithstanding, this country is one of the world’s great cultural melting pots. There are said to be around 40 languages spoken on a daily basis here, seasoned by all sorts of linguistic nuances and dialects.Dallal believes it is high time that something was done to preserve some of that linguistic and cultural diversity and hopes the play helps to bring that to the public forefront.“I can understand why the Israeli leaders at the beginning of the state wanted to make sure Hebrew was strong here. It was a matter of national identity. But Israel is now well-established, and the different colors and flavorings of our very wide and rich cultural heritage, from all over the world, should be preserved and nurtured.”Important subtexts aside, Dallal says Ana Min el-Yahud offers plenty of entertainment value.“Some of the actors have really good voices, too. Stav [Vaknin, who plays a grandmother] sings beautifully. I wrote the music while I was in Sinai with my daughters, just before the corona outbreak. I sat there on the sand by the sea with my oud and wrote the music for the show. It was such a pleasurable experience for me, to write the music for all the songs. I hope that comes across.”That, and presumably, much more.For tickets, go to Arab Hebrew Theater
