Sabbati-blog

It's 2:30 a.m. and we're getting ready to wait for our taxi that will take us to the airport. Our last week has been a mixture of things. Isaac's last day of gan (preschool) was Friday. We brought in a thank-you cake and a card for the teachers and the other yeledim (children). After that we drove over to the part of town where Robin's brother and sister live to visit for a while before the beginning of Shabbat. I thought it might be a treat to play some Chanukah songs for them so I brought along my saxophone.

On Saturday I played for about a half hour at the nursing home where my father-in-law is staying temporarily. The residents seemed to enjoy the mixture of classical music, Chanukah songs, and a few Yiddush songs. My father-in-law was certainly glad that I was able to play for his friends there. After lunch I walked over to a section of the city called The German Colony to meet with Betty Klein, the folk singer we had met the week before. It was a very pleasant walk past all sorts of buildings old and new. The stores were all closed for Shabbat, but it was interesting just to window shop. Betty was a wealth of knowledge about Jewish, Yiddish, Israeli, and Ladino folk music. She gave me two more cassettes and told me about all sorts of pieces, composers, and performers. I wish I had met her at the beginning of our trip so I could have learned about some performances. Oh well, maybe next time.

Sunday was a day for more visiting and letting Isaac have some fun at one of the malls. There was an area for children to bounce around on those air-filled things (a.k.a., bouncy houses) that have become a staple at birthday parties in the States. I also did a little shopping at the local Home Center and walked around the mall a bit.

Monday was our last day in Jerusalem and my mother-in-law had some visitors over for lunch. So, while they visited, Robin and I packed up our things and tried to get my in-laws' apartment back to its pre-Sylvern setting. Betty Klein stopped over to give me some music she had photocopied of some of the pieces we had discussed before. After that we made one more trip to Ramot Alon to say goodbye to my wife's sister and brother and their families and then headed back to finish packing and to try to get some rest before our taxi arrived.

It's hard to believe that six weeks has come and gone. It has certainly been an educational and very enjoyable trip for me. I was able to accomplish everything I set out to accomplish and I am grateful for that. I hope the pieces that are created as a result of this trip will be source of pride for myself and my family.

Goodbye from Israel.

It's the first night of Hanukkah and Robin, Isaac and I went to visit Robin's Dad and participate in the lighting of the candles. I hope I don't offend anyone because it's certainly not my intent, but it's very nice to be in a place that Hanukkah and its traditions don't have to be explained. Everyone here knows what the holiday is about and how it's typically celebrated. Again...no offense intended, just an observation.

With my Chagall Windows project done, I've concentrated my efforts on seeking out folk music from the Israeli, Ladino, Yiddush, and European (Ashkenazy) traditions. I will be meeting with a music therapist/singer on Thursday at another campus of Hebrew University (Givat Ram) to look at their holdings. I also hope to make it to a concert there Wednesday night to see the Academy Orchestra.

I was looking at the musical events in the the week's Jerusalem Post and saw that there was a concert of Hanukkah folk songs yesterday afternoon so Robin, Isaac, and I went to listen. It turned out to be a very informal concert at a women's club, but one of the singers is a fairly well-known Israeli folk singer, Betty Klein. I talked with her after the concert and she gave me a cassette and CD of her singing well known Israeli and Ladino folk songs. She also agreed to meet with me and to help me with my reserch. She will be coming to the States in the spring and I offered to help her secure a concert in Keene. We will see how that pans out.

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah so time to clean off the menorah, put the sufganiot (doughnuts) in the oven, and spin the dreidel.

Forgot to mention in my last post that when I drove to and from Hebrew University the road took me past the Old City. I mean I was right next to it. I suppose, that for people who live here all the time it's not a big thing, sort of like living in New York City and not giving a second thought to the Statue of Liberty. But for me, who doesn't come here that often, it was very exciting to drive right next to something that's over 3,000 years old and that has such historical significance.

Today we took Isaac to Liberty Bell Park. Named for a bell in the park that resembles the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. It's a nice place for families to go and has plenty of space for children to run around and play. Tonight, after Shabbat ends, the business week starts and I will continue my search for more Israeli and Ladino music.

Our next excursion was this past Monday. We took Isaac to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. It's a fairly large zoo with some interesting animals, reptiles, and birds. As you might expect, most of the residents are from Asia or Africa. We all had a great time and it was a nice way to spend the morning.

On Tuesday we dropped Isaac off at gan (preschool) and took a trip up to one of the older neighborhoods just north of the city center, Geula, to do some gift shopping. It's a religious neighborhood with extremely narrow streets but the prices there are much less that in the "touristy" parts of downtown. Later that day Robin and I dropped Isaac off at my sister-in-laws to play with his cousins and then drove over to the Chagall Synagogue so that I could record myself playing there. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to play in the synagogue and I feel that the recording came out very good. On our way back to pick up Isaac we stopped to enjoy the spectacular view of the village of Ein Kerem in the valley below the hospital. That portion of my research definitely ended on a high note (pardon the pun).



On Wednesday evening I visited my father-in-law while he's staying at a local nursing home and met with a guitarist/singer who was there doing some music therapy. As it turns out she has done quite a bit of work with Israeli and Ladino folk music and agreed to help me out as much as she can. I will contact her today or tomorrow in hopes that we can meet once or twice before we have to head back to the States.

Yesterday was quite eventful (in my opinion anyway). I set up a meeting with one of Isaac's teachers, who is also a musicology student at Hebrew University, to look for some folk music at the university library. In the morning my mother-in-law took me on a dry run to the university and it's a good thing we did. Parking there is by permit only so we had a chance to stop by Security and get a parking permit. That evening I drove, solo, to the Hebrew University campus at Mt. Scopus and met with Ishei in the music section of the library. He was able to find some CDs and an LP with some Israeli folk music for me to listen to. Now all I need to find is some Ladino music and I'll be all set.

This evening is Shabbat again so today was a day of visiting family. We have one more full week in Jerusalem and then it's back home.

Quite a bit has happened since my last post. On Saturdays pretty much everything here shuts down for Shabbat (sabbath) so Robin, Isaac and I thought it would be nice to walk around the city. The Ministry of Tourism sponsors a walking tour of different neighborhoods every Saturday morning so we thought it would be something nice to do. Unfortunately we were a little late and the tour had already left. So, we decided to do our own walking tour of the neighboorhood. It's call Yamin Moshe and was the first neighborhood to be established outside the Old City walls in the mid 1800's. There's a big windmill there and lots of tiny streets with very interesting houses. I also found the Jerusalem Music Center but it was closed for Shabbat.

More to come... In the meantime, here are two photos from our walk. Robin and Isaac at the Montefiore Windmill and Isaac and I in Yamin Moshe with the Old City in the background.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not much has happened since my last post. We had our turkey and all the trimmings yesterday. As you can imagine, Thanksgiving is only mentioned here by the American expatriates. I have to say it has been quite nice not to be inundated with all the Christmas advertising, music, etc. that is so ubiquitous this time of year.

My research at Haddassah is just about complete. However, my folk music research is pretty much stalled. I haven't been able to get anybody to return my calls or emails. But, I did find out that one of the aids in Isaac's gan (preschool) is a music major so I will be talking to him either Monday or Wednesday to see if he can help me out.

I think Isaac is getting tired of being in Israel and misses his friends in American. He's told us a few times now that he's ready to go home. I'm hoping we can take him to a few touristy places over the next couple of weeks so his time here will be a little more bearable.

Hope you all had a festive Thanksgiving.

Spent some more time at Hadassah today and completed making notes on the Chagall Windows. Also got to record two tours that came through while I was in the synagogue. After I packed up my things I paid a visit to the Tourism office and was able to secure permission to record myself playing in the synagogue. I hope to do that one afternoon next week. That will be a definite high point to this portion of my sabbatical.

I'm also going to try to contact someone at the Jerusalem Music Academy to see if I can get permission to troll around their Israeli music archive to find some folk music.

It seems as if the rainy season is upon us. We've have one dry day since Thursday and there's more rain coming. The temps have also dropped a bit and the winds have picked up. Our highs are now only in the 50's. Probably sounds warm to everybody in New England but it feels chilly here because all the buildings are made out of concrete and the floors are all tile.

Hope everyone back home is staying warm. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Not much has happened since my last entry. My in-laws took us out to breakfast on Wednesday to a very nice café not too far from their apartment. We all had a very nice Israeli-style breakfast.

After a few dozen phone calls to my mother-in-law's former internet service provider, her current ISP, and her cable company, we finally are able to get my laptop online. After dealing with all these companies I can certainly appreciate the much higher level of customer service we have in the U.S. I know some companies have pretty poor service departments, but they pale in comparison to the frustration of dealing with companies over here.

It's Shabbat here now and everything pretty much shuts down until tomorrow evening. I hope to get back to the Chagall Windows on Sunday. We shall see. . .

Well, I successfully traveled from the Hadassah Hospital to my in-law's by bus -- including a transfer. That might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but in a city that's more difficult to navigate than Boston, I thought it was some to feel good about.

I was able to take notes on a few more of the Chagall windows, so I should be able to finish the remaining windows after two or three more visits. I'll ask the Tourism Office if it might be possible to record myself playing in synagogue to use as material for the electro-acoustic portion of my compositions and that will wrap up one of my goals for this visit.

I'm still not used to seeing military folks walking around everywhere carrying rifles, but it's commonplace here to see them anywhere and everywhere.

I've been able to get a little practicing in over the past few days, which has been a welcome development. I hope to make my second trip to the Chagall Windows tomorrow. I will get a ride there but might have to take the bus home. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a daunting task, but when you don't speak the language and the possibility of taking the wrong bus and winding up in Palestinian territory is real, the process becomes a little different.

We took Isaac to Liberty Bell park on Saturday after having lunch over friends of my In-Laws. It was a nice diversion and Isaac was able to work off a little energy. I recording some singing at the synagogue across the street when they had their Havdallah service Saturday night. We had been to one the week before and in additional to a large group of soldiers there was a large group of children this week. What an uplifing way to end the Sabbath.

I took a trip to Jerusalem's version of Ace Hardware today. It was fascinating just browsing the aisles. Some things were less expensive than the States but others were much more (toilet seats cost over $40 here!). We were also able to switch internet providers today - after four days on the phone. Customer service here is not quite the same as in States. Hopefully now I'll be able to get my laptop online.

Two firsts for me yesterday. My first session taking notes on the Chagall Windows and my first time driving in Jerusalem. Fortunately both went very well. Negotiating the Israeli drivers isn't the bad part, it's the fact that none of the signs are in English. So, even though I can pronounce the Hebrew, I have not idea what the words mean. If all goes as planned I'll be back at the Hadassah Hospital tomorrow for another session in the synagogue.

We took Isaac to the Bloomfield Science Museum this morning and we all had a good time. Lots of musical exhibits to play with along with many others. This evening we took a trip to the Jerusalem Mall (believe it or not they even have malls here!), and ate at that bastion of Israeli cuisine -- Pizza Hut.

The trip to Jerusalem was uneventful and we arrived on time Tuesday evening. The new terminal building at Ben Gurion airport had just opened that day so we were some of the inagural passengers.

Yesterday I contacted Ron Krumer at the Haddassah hospital and set up a meeting. We also took Isaac to the gan (preschool) across the street from where we're staying to see if he and Robin and I would like it. The gan is in a synagogue and the Rabbi is a musician. He said he has some musician contacts and will give me their numbers.

Today we dropped Isaac off at the gan and he had a great time. Tomorrow they're going on a field trip to the Israel Museum to go olive picking. I met with Ron Krumer at the Haddassah Hospital and he introduced me to the a Tilda Efrati of the Tourism Office who will be my contact when I visit the Chagall windows. They all seemed very enthusiastic about my project. I hope the experience continues to be as positive.

Some homemade signs that welcomed us to Israel:

We're all packed and ready to go. Our flight takes off from Boston this evening and we hope to be in Israel Tuesday evening. I will be calling my contact at the Haddasah Hospital on Wednesday to set up a meeting to arrange my schedule for viewing the Chagall Windows.

Next message from Israel (we hope).

We have finalized our plans for travel to Israel. Now I can contact folks there to make arrangements for my research. I have already made intial contacts with Dany Akiva, about arranging recitals, and the Haddassah Hospital about visiting the Chagall Windows.

We'll see what happens now.

I'll be on sabbatical starting this August. I thought it might be interesting to post some miscellaneous thoughts, ideas, etc. I hope it turns out to be a good experience for all.

More as it develops...