Jazz enthusiasts should mark March 4 on their calendars for the new jazz series Sweet Home Chicago, which will be held at the Harmony Cultural Center, 1 Koresh Street, at 7 p.m.
At HCC, where immigrant artists get the chance to show their various visual and performing talents, and instrumentalists and singers perform in every musical genre, next Tuesday is Bluesday in the series.
Concert at Safra Square
■ HOPEFULLY, THE nature of the concert to be held at Safra Square on March 6 at 7 p.m. under the title Sharim LeShuvam (Singing for Their Return) will need to be changed because prayers for the return of all the hostages will have been answered, and the evening will instead be one of thanksgiving.
Participants will include Mayor Moshe Lion; Rabbi David Menachem of Uriel Congregation in Mevaseret Zion; Tzvi Sussman, the father of Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Ben Sussman of blessed memory; Shlomit Klemenson, widow of Lt.-Col. (res.) Elhanan Klemenson of blessed memory; and family members of hostages kidnapped and taken to Gaza. The concert will feature performances by singer-songwriters Ishay Ribo and Adi Gabison. Entrance is free of charge. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
The event is co-sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ambassadors of Unity for the hostages.
More music news
■ MUSIC ON a somewhat different note can be heard on the same date (March 6) at 9 p.m. at the Break Bar at 9 Helene Hamalka Street, where Tehila Heinrich and the Double D Strings will be belting out folk and country rock. Entrance is free of charge. For further information, call Tracey at 054-810-8918.
■ JERUSALEM’S Singing hero Idan Amedi gave his first public concert in more than a year last week after having been seriously wounded while fighting as a reservist in Gaza.
During his recuperation, he wrote material for his new album and has a busy time ahead. This week alone, he has three sold-out concerts at Expo Tel Aviv.
In the course of a radio interview this past Sunday, in which Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion was asked about preparations the municipality had made in the event of snow, he was also asked about Amedi’s concert at the Pais Arena. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the place,” the mayor said.
The Jerusalem public gets very emotional about its entertainment personalities. Quite a number of stars – past and present – were born in Jerusalem, though Amedi is one of the few big names who still live in the capital. Other stars who were born in Zion include actresses Natalie Portman, Mili Avital, Niv Sultan, Daniela Kertesz, Rivka Michaeli and Aliza Rosen; actors Shaike Ophir, Yisrael Poliakov, Nehemiah Persoff, Lior Raz, Yuval Shemtov, and Makram Khoury; and singers Yossi Banai, Rika Zarai, Yehoram Gaon, and Yasmin Levy. There are many more. Some of the above are deceased; others moved to Tel Aviv, the US, and Germany.
How's the weather down there?
■ ALTHOUGH IT was very cold for much of the past week, weather conditions did not warrant the near-empty streets from Thursday on. Winds were not as gusty as predicted, and there were long periods without rain. And snow, which was minimal, did not cover the whole city in white – and the little that did fall melted almost immediately.But the effects of the weather forecast were evident. Coffee shops, which are usually crowded on Fridays, were empty, and the proprietors of some did not even bother to open. Many retail stores were closed, there were plenty of empty seats on public transport, and very few pedestrians could be seen in the streets.
Even Gina, the discount store on Jaffa Road near King George Avenue, which is usually so full that shoppers can barely move, had only a handful at a time and no long lines at the cashiers’ counter.
More music
■ BACK TO the subject of music: Emunah’s annual cantorial concert at the Henry Crown Concert Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre is always a sell-out, both for the quality of the entertainment and for the cause for which proceeds are earmarked.
This year’s concert is on Tuesday, April 1, and features cantors Simon Cohen, Gideon Zelermyer, and Chaim Dovid Berson, accompanied by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ido Shpitalnik. Also appearing are violinist Ma’ayan Cavenor, and the Halelu Men’s and Children’s Choir conducted by Shalom Kinori. The musical arrangements are by composer, conductor, instrumentalist, and musical arranger Raymond Goldstein, who is familiar to congregants of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue.
Masters of ceremony will be Richard Shavei Zion and Ido Tauber.
In addition to cantorial favorites, the program will include operatic classics and the best of Broadway.Proceeds will be utilized for trauma therapy in the Emunat Rachel Counseling Center.
■ TODAY, FRIDAY, February 28, many past and present members of the Supreme Court will congregate at the Sanhedria cemetery to honor the memory of Chief Justice Miriam Naor at a memorial service marking the third anniversary of her passing. At the time of her sudden death, Naor was chair of the committee investigating the Mount Meron tragedy in which 45 men and boys lost their lives, and 150 were injured in a Lag Ba’Omer stampede there in April 2021.
Naor was one of Israel’s leading experts in criminal law, and although no one in authority was ultimately brought to trial for ignoring warnings about the dangers of overcrowding, what happened on that fateful Lag Ba’Omer was widely considered to be criminal.
A lifelong Jerusalemite, the former chief justice was a graduate of the Gymnasia Rehavia and later of the Hebrew University. Her husband, Arye Naor, who is a political figure and an academic, is the son of Esther Raziel-Naor, one of the founders of Herut, which preceded the Likud, and one of 11 women in the first Knesset. She was a legislator for 25 years.
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