Cantor Roochvarg's Israel Trip Blog

Installment #7

There is to be a big Cantorial concert here in Jerusalem Wednesday night, April 24, at the fabled Jerusalem Theater, featuring three of the world's outstanding Cantors; Colin Shachat (whom I met on Shabbat), Yaakov Stark (perhaps the only up-and-coming HAZZAN in the world who is also a member of the Satmar community - worth looking up), and Netanel Herstik (who sang in a concert with his father at Temple Israel some fifteen years ago.) Herstik is now the HAZZAN of the Orthodox congregation in East Hampton, Long Island. (Temple Israel heard him before he became a "star".)

Knowing that Linda & I would no longer be in Jerusalem Wednesday night, Raymond invited us to attend a rehearsal with the HAZZANIM this AM, accompanied by the Jerusalem Symphony. While the orchestra was being rehearsed, I asked my distinguished colleagues if I might photograph them, and they happily agreed. (Yes, if you look closely, Cantor Stark, the one in the middle, has PEYOS, "sidelocks" of hair, a testament to his Hassidic affiliation.) If the concert goes as well as the rehearsal, it will be a great success!
 

After the rehearsal, Linda headed back to the hotel, while I set myself the ambitious (for me) goal of walking down to the Haas Promenade, the walkway in the Talpiyot suburb that affords an unobstructed panorama of Jerusalem from the south (click here). The walk, about two miles, mostly downhill, took about half an hour. One thing visitors who have been there before cannot fail to notice, is the tremendous amount of new building. At one time, 40 years ago, there was a restriction on how tall new buildings in Jerusalem could be. But that restriction has either been eliminated, or rolled back.

Then of course I had the even greater challenge of walking BACK, this time mostly UP hill! I could have taken a bus, or even a taxi for that matter, but I "toughed it out" and walked. Something about the air of Jerusalem (maybe it's the carbon monoxide!) gave me the energy.

For our last evening in Jerusalem, we invited Raymond & his wife Suzanne to be OUR guests for dinner. We went to the Mamilla Center (for the last time) and ate at a restaurant which had Passover versions of bread, croutons, pizza & pies!

  As I started to begin packing for our move to Tel Aviv, I found the Israeli Army kippah which I had taken during my
  volunteering. It matches the Israeli Army uniforms...and was made in CHINA!