Concert and the Israel Film Festival

A month ago I went down to the Museum of Jewish Heritage at Battery Park. They were hosting a special concert series called "Songs of Peace" in honor of Daniel Pearl. I signed up with Rachel Foster to see Idan Raichel and friends in an acoustic performance, which Shira (my sister) ended up going to with her own friend. It was an intimate setting, and longtime fan that I am, I was sitting in row 12, while Shira (who now really likes Idan but at the time had never heard of him) was front row, next to his piano, catching his sweat. Damn.

Idan's music is called the "Idan Raichel Project" because it's an ongoing collaboration and mixing of Israeli and Ethiopian music. For those not in the know: Ethiopian Jews began immigrating enmasse to Israel with the help of Israeli airlifts during the 90s, a time of famine in the region. Jews have been in Ethiopia for around 2,500 years, and so their form of Judaism differs from the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions (those two groups have not been as isolated from each other for as long). So there is currently a significant Ethiopian population in Israel, but they face racism and marginalization. I found one Ethiopian restaurant in Jerusalem, which I frequented often. So when Idan Raichel's Project came out in 2002, it sent shock waves through Israeli society and helped bring Ethiopian culture into mainstream Israeli life.

Back to the concert. It was really wonderful, not only because the music was beautiful but because of the amazing performances by the numerous people who joined Idan onstage. There was a Brooklyn trumpeter, who brought the sounds of foggy NY streets early in the morning to the music. Itamar Doari was the percussion master, with at least 7 drums and 4 different cowbell/maraka contraptions on his legs. There were also three women who each took turns singing solos and in harmony; Ethiopian-Israeli Cabra Casay, Colombian Marta Gomez, and Somi who was from Rwanda via Sudan. Each woman had such different musical qualities and styles. Cabra was definitely the hottest, and her style was a little rougher, more familiar from Israel. Marta was the most expressive and really used her arms throughout the experience. Somi did the craziest, most incredible things with her voice, throwing it really high in short bursts and going low. (Pictured: Idan at Piano, Cabra, Somi and Marta singing, and Itamar on drums)

So I was excited to see that there was a film about the Project during the 22nd Israel Film Festival here in NY. The film is a documentary called "Black on White" and follows Idan's entourage on their first trip to perform in Ethiopia. For a short film, only about 1 hour long, it covered a lot of ground. They discussed racism against Ethiopians in Israel, about immigrating and either choosing to take a Hebrew name or not, and the discord about their dream of the Promised Land and what they got. Once they got to Ethiopia it was interesting to see how Avi, the male singer, was able to readily reconnect with his family (he left at age 8), whereas Cabra (who left at age 1 and doesn't speak Amharic) felt that she wasn't Ethiopian, but Israeli. Most interesting to me personally was their sense of belonging and not belonging, of feeling torn between their two homes, which I feel very much defines my own relationship with Israel. It was also crazy to hear their impressions of Ethiopia, a decidedly less developed country than Israel, and realize that what they saw as a "simple life" was how I often thought of Israel as well.

I also went to see "Sal of the Earth" with Mike, my brother-in-law. I went primarily because Lior Ashkenazi is one of the stars, and I absolutely loved him in "Walk on Water." Loved him. This film follows 4 army buddies, each a bit bored with his life or in a rut, who decide to rob a gangster. While the character development was a bit weak, I loved the Israeliness of it all. They were risking their lives for 4 MILLION SHEKELS (dr. evil finger to lips). That's about $1 million, which is hardly worth risking your life for, right? Especially divided by 4. Especially when everyone in Israel is in debt anyway. Ashkenazi was good as the Columbo-like detective (minus the glass eye and much cuter).