Jewish Small Communities Network

Early tour in Israel ,1973…

The audience sings “Hevenu Shalom Aleichem” as a jesture for legendary Leonard Cohen to come back to the stage…

Cohen’s first performance in Israel was in the middle of  the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

While on tour he performed for Israeli troops in the Sinai Desert, coming under fire.

On 24 September 2009 Leonard Cohen, now 75,  performed again in Israel for the first time in 30 years at Ramat Gan stadium near Tel Aviv.

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, addressed the Jewish Small Communities meeting in Blackpool on 8 February at the Blackpool Hebrew Congregation.
His complete speech is available in 4 segments.
Please click this link to view the complete speech [link]

This year’s memorial service was completed with a choir’s performance of a song written by an inmate of Treblinka.

For a video of the choir’s performance alone click here

A preview of Rabbi Katanka’s singing. He will be visiting Southport in February.

We think you’ll enjoy this recital of the daily Mincha repetition by Cantor Avishai Shmuel Levin, who serves as a Chazzan for the Jewish community of Munich.

Esther Ofarim sings Veotach in Hamburg 1998
Esther Ofarim has had a long and distinguished solo career after splitting from her husband Abi. She continues to perform primarily in Israel and Germany. In the English speaking countries she seems to have fallen somewhat out of sight. But thanks to Youtube we can enjoy some of her many recorded performances.

link: Esther Ofarim sings Shecharchoret

Sarah Aroeste started attending music school at age 12. Sarah spent the next 10 years (including her 4 years at Yale University) training as a classical singer. During that time she won several competitions and sang in various international venues, most notably Tanglewood Music Festival and the Israel Vocal Arts Institute. While singing in Israel in 1997, Sarah met Nico Castel, the world-renowned diction coach of the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the world’s leading experts on Ladino, a form of Castillian Spanish and the language of Sarah’s Sephardic family. Sarah started studying Ladino music and culture with Castel, and upon her return to America she began incorporating Ladino into her concerts. In time, Sarah realized that very few people in America were familiar with Ladino and Sephardic music, so she founded her own music production company, Aroeste Music LLC, to expose this geography of music and make it more accessible to a new and wider audience. Combining the various influences that have shaped her, Sarah has created a musical style that mixes traditional Mediterranean Sephardic music with contemporary sensibilities such as rock, funk, jazz and blues. In 2001 Aroeste launched the Sarah Aroeste Band, the world’s first (and as yet only) Ladino Rock band.

link: Sarah Aroeste

Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation

Iranian state television is airing a drama series that claims that the Jews reached Palestine because of persecution during World War II.
The series, “A Zero Degree Turn” is aired weekly at prime time. It tells the story of a young Iranian named Habib Parsan, played by a well-known Iranian actor, Shihab Hassini, who goes to Paris to study at university before the war. He befriends a young Jewish woman by the name of Sarah Struk, who fears the growing strength of the Nazis in Germany.
So far the series shows considerable financial investment. It was filmed in Tehran, Budapest and Paris, and includes dozens of actors, some of whose voices are dubbed in Persian.
link: Read article in full

10 mins extract from an early episode
link: further video clips PART 2 :: PART 3

One year on after Israel’s confrontation with Hezbolah, Lisa Goldman entered Beirut via Jordan to make this report for Israeli TV.