After 59 years of Israel’s stormy existence, it can be hard to recall that “a Jewish country has never been tried before,” or at least “not with a government you can vote for.”
“We don’t know what to imitate. We had to invent ourselves,” continued Rakefet Ginsberg, shlichah (emissary) from Israel to Milwaukee and director of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Center, during a conversation in her office.
And with all the attention-seizing problems that Israel has, “we sometimes forget how many great things Israel brought to the world and to Jews,” she said.
And so Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, which this year falls on Monday, April 23, can be the day on which we “celebrate not just the fact that Israel exists” but can also “count the good things” about Israel, she said.
One of those is its music; and one of the prime contributors to creating that music for more than 20 years has been guitarist-singer-songwriter Miki Gavrielov.
Ginsberg said that when it was first suggested to her that Gavrielov be featured in “Milwaukee Celebrates Israel,” that Jewish community’s Yom HaAtzmaut festival, she thought she wasn’t familiar with his music.
But then she realized that many songs she knew that “are basic for every Israeli” were in fact his compositions; she just hadn’t realized it before because many other Israeli singers had recorded his songs.
Moreover, as she demonstrated with a video of one of his concerts in which people were dancing in the aisles, “he knows how to make a lot of fun.”
Gavrielov will be performing at Congregation Shalom at 6:30 p.m., immediately following the Community Walk with Israel, chaired by Jeff Schuster, which will begin at 4 p.m. and move from the Karl Jewish Community Campus north parking lot to Shalom.
Also from 4:30 to 8 p.m., Shalom will be the site of the community-wide Yom HaAtzmaut celebration, chaired by Yonit and Guy Lerner. That event will include a food court (open until 7:30 p.m.), arts and crafts activities, music and magic shows on an entertainment stage.
“Milwaukee Celebrates Israel” is hosted by the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center and the Israel Center. Event chair is Moshe Katz; co-chair is Yonatan Zvi; honorary chairs are Roslyn Roucher and Rabbi Philip Nadel.
Shuttle service will be available from Shalom to the Karl Campus parking lot. Admission to all events is free. For more information, call Ginsberg at 414-390-5705, or Dorene Paley, JCC community services director, at 414-967-8217.
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