Handel’s ‘Messiah’

Tags

abu ghosh, Christmas, Festival Hall, Kilburn, Lincoln Nebraska, South Bank, Thames

I’m not quite sure how far back the family tradition goes, but I know that when my father was a child in Hamburg, Germany, he was taken to concerts there, and that music, and especially choral music, played an important part in the family’s life. I, too, was taken to concerts in my childhood in London, primarily to hear a performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah.’

In England, and indeed all over the world, it is customary to perform the oratorio at Christmas time. Going to hear that wonderful oratorio as a child brought me into contact with a world that was very different from the one in which I lived ordinarily. From the modest neighbourhood of Kilburn I was transported to a glittering scene of light and warmth on London’s South Bank, to the Festival Hall, where every brightly-lit window was reflected in the dark waters of the Thames that flowed beside it.

And after the long journey by public transport across London, what a delight it was to find my childhood self surrounded by well-spoken people in elegant clothes, to walk with my father on soft carpets to our appointed places, and to listen to the sublime music that emanated from the huge orchestra and choir, and the lavishly-dressed soloists at the front of the stage. The fact that most of the words were taken from the Old Testament, the words of the Prophet Isaiah and the Psalms, dawned on me only at a much later stage.

Over the years I became very familiar with the oratorio, knowing which aria followed which chorus, and being able to sing them to myself as I fell asleep. The excitement that enveloped the audience as the introduction to the Hallelujah Chorus was played and everyone stood up (only in England, as I later found out), was also part of the theatrical nature of the event.

Since living in Israel I have tried to go to a performance of the Messiah whenever possible, and in recent years it has become an annual event at Christmas-time. It is performed by an Israeli choir, orchestra and soloists in the church at Abu Ghosh, and although the pronunciation of the English words is not always quite as it should be, the notes are definitely the same.

In 1984 we spent a year in Lincoln, Nebraska, and were able to participate in a public performance of the work. To do this one had to buy the book containing the music and words so that one could sing along in the choral parts. The conductor, orchestra, choir and soloists were on the stage, and the audience was invited to join in the choir. An attempt was made to divide us up into sopranos, altos, tenors and basses, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this did not always work as it should. All the same, everyone had a good time, and did their best to sing along.

Part of the fun in Abu Ghosh is being able to join in the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus by the audience, together with the entire ensemble, once the performance is over. It is a heartwarming moment when the conductor (Ron Zarhi at last week’s performance) turns round and encourages everyone to join in.

One year I even managed to attend a performance in a church in France. There, too, the pronunciation of the English text was occasionally slightly quirky (‘The trompette shall sound,’ for example), but to hear it sung in all its glory, with the additional bonus of a grand, newly-installed organ, was out of this world.

Just as my father took me to performances in my childhood, I have endeavoured to take my children, and later my grandchildren, to hear this splendid work. So it was a particular pleasure last week to be able to take our youngest granddaughter, 12-year-old Lihi, to hear it for the first time. She said she enjoyed it, and sat transfixed throughout the two-hour performance. Many performers and members of the audience subsequent enjoyed lunch at one of the nearby restaurants, adding to the enjoyment of the event.

I don’t believe in cutting oneself off from all the cultural bounty the world has to offer simply because it is associated with a religion that is not one’s own. And I’m happy and proud of the fact that not only my own parents, who were observant Jews, but their parents, too, seem to have shared this enlightened view. And that is part of the heritage I hope to be able to pass on to my own offspring.

The Balancing Game

Tags

Israel, Jerusalem, Jewish family life, Jewish festivals, Post-war London, Six-Day War

My book, ‘The Balancing Game,’ has finally been published! This is a great moment for me. I’ve been writing, on and off, for most of my life, and even as a small child tried to write little stories, drawing on my imagination. Nothing came of them, of course, but later in life I began more in earnest. The key turning-point came when my family spent a year in Lincoln, Nebraska, and I attended a creative writing course at the local community college, under the tutelage of Katherine Kidwell, a Published Author, who tried to steer her motley crew of students towards writing lucidly and according to a tried and tested formula. This helped me to some extent, though of course formulaic writing was not for me.

But I persisted with my writing. The novel I wrote then still exists somewhere, in the form of a typescript, which I will one day retype into my computer, where it will join the other six or seven novels I have written over time, and which I hope to get published in the years to come.

But to return to ‘The Balancing Game,’ whose cover is displayed at the top of this post, and whose website is http://sbpra.com/DorotheaShefer-Vanson. It can be ordered from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and its ISBN number is 978-1-62212-846-4. I also hope to have it available as an ebook in the not-too-distant future. The book’s subtitle is ‘A Child Between Two Worlds, A Society Approaching War,’ and it describes the strange world of Naomi, a Jewish child living in London in the 1940s and 1950s. She is the daughter of orthodox Jews, refugees from Hitler’s Germany, and is unknowingly caught between the world of the Jewish family and the run-down, non-Jewish neighbourhood in which she lives. Her friendship with Jeannie, the little girl of her own age who lives next door, gives her an insight into the world of the English working class, and her life consists of trying to find her balance in this environment.

In addition, the book also describes the life of a young woman, Felicity, who is pregnant with her first child in Jerusalem in May and June 1967, the period of the build-up to the Six-Day War between Israel and the neighbouring Arab countries. The book describes the everyday life of Felicity and the people around her, and how the period of the preparation for the war, and the war itself, affects them. It also gives an account of the fraught relations between Felicity and her parents-in-law, as well as the complete severing of her relations with her own parents. The cover of the book is based on a watercolour painting I did in London some years ago.

The book ends with an account of the end of the Six-Day War, the birth of Felicity’s child and the experiences of the infant Naomi who is sent away to the countryside in the framework of the evacuation of children from London during the Blitz. The psychological insight into the mind of the infant Naomi sheds light on the character of the main protagonists.

I don’t want to give away too much, but those are the bare bones of the book. I hope lots of you will be interested enough to buy it. I think it should grant insights into the workings of the human mind in a defined period of recent history, as well as being of interest to anyone who is interested in Israel and its history, London in the period immediately after the Second World War, and the intricacies and enigmas of Jewish family life.

I hope above all that anyone who reads it finds it is worth the time and effort (and money) involved, and will recommend it to friends and family. I’m also looking forward to receiving feedback from readers, either to this blog or to my email address: dorotheashefer@gmail.com

Curioser and Curioser

Tags

Abu Abbas, Arab Spring, Avigdor Lieberman, Bibi Netanyahu, elections in Israel, Hamas, occupied territories, Palestine, West Bank

As election time in Israel draws near (the date set is 22nd January 2013), the plethora of parties and personalities vying for the Israeli voter’s attention is becoming ever more frenetic. On the one side is the massive combined weight of two right-wing parties, led by Avigdor Lieberman and current Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, while on the left is a motley array of groups and individuals that are barely distinguishable from one another as regards their policies and their aspirations. The general feeling is that we are like Alice in Wonderland, where our mere physical existence seems to be part of an insoluble enigma.

The political, economic and security situation of Israel continues to be one that inspires both admiration and fear. Admiration for the achievements in many fields by a country whose existence has been threatened ever since its inception, and fear regarding its precarious situation in the international arena, with opprobrium being directed at it from one quarter or another, no matter what it does. If it adopts an aggressive stance in the face of attacks and threats from those who seek to destroy it, it is condemned as an aggressor and occupier. If it withdraws from so-called ‘occupied areas,’ as it has done in the past, it is subjected to rocket attacks and attempts at murderous incursions into its territory.

But to get back to the upcoming elections, the disarray of the parties of the left and centre seems to reflect the confusion of ideas as to how to resolve the situation in which Israel finds itself. If it withdraws from the ‘occupied territories,’ as the international community seems to wish it to do, thus enabling the Palestinian State to come into being, what will the upshot be? The parties on the right are convinced that the immediate result will be a hail of rockets on Israel’s vulnerable towns and villages, ending in disaster for all concerned. After all, Israel has the strongest army in the region, and would deploy it if attacked. But the cost on both sides would inevitably be great.

If the parties on the left gain power, they purportedly will seek an amicable solution with the current Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, headed by Abu Abbas, whose official term as President of the Palestinian Authority ended four years ago and who is not considered as their true representative by most of the residents of the area there. In Gaza the Hamas-led leadership openly declares its hostility to Israel and aspires to its destruction. The echoes of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ are beginning to waft into the area, and it may only be a matter of time before mass demonstrations along the lines of those seen in neighbouring Arab countries break out all over the West Bank. The presence there of Israeli settlers may not do much to calm an already volatile situation, and claims to an age-old attachment to the land, dating back to Biblical times, are neither very helpful nor carry any great validity in this day and age.

The general consensus in Israel seems to be ‘don’t rock the boat.’ Leave things as they are, with the current right-wing government in power, free to continue with its contradictory policy of encouraging settlement in the occupied territories while at the same time claiming to be seeking peace. But since peace means leaving Israel vulnerable, who in their right mind would want peace at that price?

The bottom line here seems to be that more people than ever before are confused as to what is the right policy and which party to vote for. The fact that the left-centre parties are unable to form a united front only further complicates the situation, and general disillusionment with the political process is rife. In fact, the latest polls show that the grouping with the largest number of votes, or rather non-votes, is that of Israelis who say that they are not going to bother to vote in the forthcoming elections, and at the last count this group numbered two million people. The prospect is far from encouraging, but to date there is no solution in sight for even the most incorrigible optimist, such as myself.