June 2007

I thought you would be interested in something that happened to me today (Jerusalem Day in Israel, to commemmorate the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967) But first read a little bit:

Born in London and raised in Israel , Shuly Nathan, singer and storyteller, made history with the song 'Jerusalem of Gold'.

At the age of 16 she started playing the guitar, singing and collecting folk songs. During her army service she worked as teacher for illiterate adults in a new border settlement in the south of Israel . During that time she participated in several amateur radio programs.
Writer and composer Naomi Shemer heard one of the programs and Shuly Nathan was asked to appear in the annual Independence Day Song Festival in Jerusalem, not in the actual contest but with an "ornamental song", a request by Jerusalem 's mayor, Teddy Kollek. The song was "Jerusalem of Gold", which mesmerized the audience and overshadowed the whole festival. Shuly was asked to sing it again, and the entire audience stood up and joined in.
Two weeks later the 1967 war broke out and the song became the anthem of the war, a prayer for the reunification of Jerusalem .

OK, so this morning we had an assembly to celebrate Jerusalem Day, at which "Shuly Nathan" would be singing. Great, I thought--never heard of her! But we talked about her in class (and have been singing Jerusalem songs all week.)

So it turns out that the director of the language program (at the request of whom I have now performed three times) knew Shuly and had told her about me. I didn't know this.

So I'm in the front row, and after singing, in her beautiful, natural soprano, several songs to open her show, she introduced the Naomi Shemer song, Chorshat HaEkalyptus (Beside the Jordan is an English title.) Then she asked for me to come up and join her! I said (in Hebrew, I'm proud to say) that I only know the chorus, and she said "come up--I'll sing the verses!" So, of course, I went up, while my fellow travelers applauded, and we sang together--I "doodled" harmony when she was singing and we alternated melody/harmony for the rest. Wow! What a thrill!
After the show, she and I talked, and it turns out she is a member of Hod v'Hadar, the conservative synagogue not two streets away from me in Kfar Saba! She invited me to come, and said she would introduce me around and we'd talk about work for me there!

So we hugged, I sat down, and on with the show.

But then she called me up again to do "Al Kol Eileh" (For All of These)--another by Naomi Shemer, and again for "Oseh Shalom" by Nurit Hirsh (ya-ah-seh shalom only the audience didn't know when to clap, so I did my famous Get-Ready-To-Clap motions, and by the end we all knew it!)

After the show, she and I talked, and it turns out she is a member of Hod v'Hadar, the conservative synagogue not two streets away from me in Kfar Saba! She invited me to come, and said she would introduce me around and we'd talk about work for me there!

So, once again, out of my willingness to stand up and possibly make a fool of myself, came a wonderful experience and more possibilities.

I wish you a day of the same!

Also in June I participated in a celebration of the language schools all over Israel that immigrants attend (me too!) There were about 1400 people there, mostly immigrants from ALL over--Ethiopia, South America, all over Europe, all over the former Soviet Union, even some Asians--you can just imagine the different faces and shapes! As they paraded at the beginning (think Olympics) I wondered what I was doing here.But as the chairman of the event spoke and then sang, himself--to warm and enthusiastic response--I thought, "oh, yes, THAT'S why--they love music here!" (Do any of you remember Bill Moss at Sharon's high school graduation? Well, it was not like that!)

Some of the immigrants spoke of their experiences (in Hebrew) and I sang--2 songs, one in Hebrew and one in Ladino (the Spanish spoken by the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492, and who settled all around the Mediterranean.) A family from Venezuela sang the most amazing, bouncy song, in Hebrew, about dreaming in Spanish! It's something everyone talks about--that once you start dreaming in Hebrew, you "get it"!

The "paid talent" was a late 30-ish young man who also sang--in the intro they talked about his TV and radio experience (still don't know his name but will find out tomorrow.) Anyway, he sang one of the songs that I sang (he arrived after I performed) and when he asked the crowd who knew the song, everyone pointed at me and pushed me up to sing with him--so we had a duet, and I got another round of applause. And my next gig will be a paying one for the municipality of Ra'anana. Really, the woman who runs the language program might as well be my agent! (Well, actually she is!)

This is an amazing place. As hard as things are sometimes, I still think there is a place for me here, though I will have to learn more patience...