Singing Naomi Shemer in Shiloh

Naomi Shemer, 1930 - 2004, was one of the greatest, if not the greatest Hebrew songwriters ever. Many of her songs are classics, including the iconic "Jerusalem of Gold," which has been proposed to replace Hatikva as the National Anthem of the State of Israel.

Well before my Hebrew was fluent, or even passable, I sang and danced to her songs. Unlike most modern music, Shemer's tunes are very easy to follow. And now that my Hebrew has improved over the decades, I can now appreciate the beauty of her Hebrew. That was one of the great unexpected bonuses from last night's Naomi Shemer Singalong, which I attended. For the first time I really looked at her lyrics and understood more than the superficial. Some are like prayers. She mentions Gd quite a bit, asking Him to intercede.

My first awareness that there was a composer-songwriter named Naomi Shemer was in 1967, when her song "Jerusalem of Gold" became an international hit. And a few years later, when I was an olah chadasha, new immigrant in Israel. we learned a few of her songs in ulpan, the Hebrew immersion course I took.

The Naomi Shemer Singalong was advertised as a 50+ social/cultural event, but it attracted younger neighbors, too. I suddenly noticed that among the attendees were neighbors who had taught my children Naomi Shemer songs, my children's classmates and my own former students.

We sang from modern versions of the "slides," from way back when.

אנשים טובים Anashim Tovim, Good People

I was surprised to discover that a song I used to dance to in New York, מחר Machar, Tomorrow is a Naomi Shemer song. It's one of the dances I remember dancing down Fifth Avenue at a Salute to Israel Parade.

There's no doubt in my mind that Naomi Shemer's songs are far superior in every way to modern music. Last night as I sang along with my neighbors, I really wanted to dance, too.

My Story on Beit Hatfutsot, Diaspora Museum Site

As part of the Senior Citizen program in the Ofra Girls High School, I told "my story" to the "harav dori," multi-generation site of The Museum of the Jewish People, Beit Hatfutsot, formerly called The Diaspora Museum.

ממחול בניו יורק לתפילה בתל שילה From Dancing in New York to Praying in Tel Shiloh

It's in Hebrew, as you can see if you click above. I know that they also have an English version of the site, and I have to find out how to redo my story in English.

There are two basic aims to this oral history program. Besides having the stories of thousands of Jews from all over the world on their site, the museum also wanted the younger generation to hear about the lives of us older ones. That's why we were matched up with high school students, who asked us questions and typed up the stories on the computer.

Since our program began last fall, we've participated in many activities in which we "veteran Israelis" got to tell the teens about ourselves. I went from feeling that I had either no story worth telling or too many to choose from. This isn't meant to be a full biography, just one small but important aspect of my life.

When I found a couple of pictures of my marching/dancing, while holding an Israeli flag, at the 1970 Salute to Israel Parade in New York, it seemed like the perfect example of my "old life" to contrast with my present one. In the mid-late 1960s I was one of the prominent Jewish student "activists" in New York, SSSJ, NCSY, Betar and more. Today we live in Shiloh, and over a decade ago I initiated women's Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh.

Yesterday, as part of the program with The Museum of the Jewish People, Beit Hatfutsot, we went to the museum for a special tour. I hadn't been there since it had first opened forty years ago. They've changed it so much, not just the name.

To continue to build our connection with the students, we were told to walk around various exhibits with them and choose the items that we both felt connected to. By doing this we shared experiences and backgrounds. The students are the ages of our grandchildren, so they know very little about us. It was a very interesting exercise.

I definitely recommend visiting The Museum of the Jewish People, Beit Hatfutsot, and hope to go again, soon.

I couldn't resist a selfie next to this photo of olim chadashim, new immigrants leaving a ship, since we, too, made aliyah by boat, though about fifteen 15 years after this photo was taken.

Memories of Salute to Israel Parade, NY, 1970

We've been pulling out old albums of late, and found these irreplaceable photos.

They are from the Salute to Israel Parade. Marching are members of the NCSY Dance Group which had performed in Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden that year. I was group leader. It was the first time the Israeli Folk Dance Festival had performed there.

Previously it had been in Carnegie Hall, which has, or had, an ambience all its own. But festival director, Fred Berk had been itching for a more genuine folk dance festival feeling. He hated the stage and curtains in the illustrious concert hall. When I took his Leadership and Choreography course in 1967-68, he always stressed that true folk dance required dancing onto the performance area and dancing off of it. NO CURTAINS raised and lowered.

At the 1970 festival we all sat around the performance area, getting up to dance on and off when it was our group's turn. Then at the very end of the show, all of the groups and dancers danced together in separate circles.

A couple of months later, at the parade, my dancers and I donned our costumes and danced up Fifth Avenue. We had sewn the skirts the year before for the 1969 festival, but then we added white trim on the bottom plus the "belts" in 1970. And we wore our own white blouses. For the festivals, we danced barefoot, but of course that wouldn't work on the NYC streets.

In 1970, NCSY was given a spot near the beginning of the parade, and Betar was towards the end. So, after dancing the entire way to the end, I quickly, literally ran back down Fifth Avenue to join Betar and march again. Being just a spectator was not for me.

Who else was at that parade?

Salute to Israel Parade, Now Mainstream Popular

I marched in the very first Salute to Israel Parade, which is what I still call it. It took place in either 1964 or 1965. At that time I was active in NCSY, the Great Neck Synagogue chapter. So a handful of us took the LIRR into the city and went to wherever we had been told. I just followed the others, since at that point I wasn't very knowledgable about "the city." If I remember correctly, I was the youngest and the only girl in the group, so the guys made a point of taking care of me.

The parade was small, no floats that I can remember, nor did we have matching T-shirts. And I don't have any pictures, either. It wasn't very common to be a "Jewish activist" in those days and definitely not mainstream for American Jews. And it was before the 1967 Six Days War. There was an enormous difference between Israel's popularity pre and post the war.

Prior to the 1967 war, there was more yeridah than aliyah. In simple English, more Israelis left Israel than moved there. Actually, it still may be true. But today, actually since the late 1960's aliyah-moving to Israel has become much more common. By the late-1970's many or most American Jews know someone or the family of someone who had moved to Israel. When my husband and I got off the boat in Israel, the only people my parents knew with a child in Israel were my in-laws. But just a couple of years later, they were the people everyone called for advice on how to cope and what to send.

From 1967-1970, I danced in the Parade with NCSY.

This picture of me and my friend Debbie Klaff Dan dancing at the 1969* parade was used by the organizers for the advertisement the following year.

I'm glad to see my AFSI friend Helen Freedman celebrating, too.
screen shot Arutz 7

The reports of this year's parade sound great.

NYC TURNS BLUE AND WHITE FOR 53RD ANNUAL CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE
New Yorkers gather by the thousands in an outpouring of love for the Jewish state.

I'm sure there were more than just New Yorkers marching and cheering!

It's nice to know that now being an American living in Israel is no longer considered rare and odd. Join us!

*I keep thinking of it as in 1968, but since the float says 21st Anniversary, that would make it 1969.

Salute to Israel Parade, Memories

Today in New York there will be the Salute to Israel Parade.  Just the name of it brings back such vivid memories.  I marched and danced at/with/in all the early parades from the first until 1970.  There were years I did it twice, rushing back to the start off.  First I marched/danced with NCSY and then I'd march with Betar.  I had such energy then.

There's only one picture I have of myself participating in the Salute to Israel Parade. It's the one that the Jewish Agency used in its poster to advertise the following year's parade.

Can you guess which dancer is me?  I'm still very close friends with the friend I had danced with then.  She also lives in Israel, not far from me.  We even sometimes take the same Bible classes.

Just recently she confided that it was the Israeli folk dancing which I had gotten her involved that brought her to Zionism and Israel.  We were privileged to represent NCSY in the Fred Berk Leadership and Choreography Course, 1967-68, which was held in the 92nd Street Y each year.  The following year we led the NCSY Dance Group in the big Folk Dance Festival that Fred was in charge of.

When I look back on my life, these events were definite highlights. All of the young Zionist activists took part in one way or another. We got to know each other in person.  In those days there weren't any cellphones or computers, internet etc.  If you corresponded you used paper and stamps.  Even phone calls were expensive.  There weren't any security concerns.  Terrorism was unheard of.  It was truly a great time to be growing up in.

I was a young high school student when the parade first began.  I traveled to the city with friends from my NCSY chapter of the Great Neck Synagogue. They were all older than me and possibly I was the only girl in the group.  They also knew their way around Manhattan and navigated, finding where we started to march.  And when it was over, they made sure I got home safely.

Almost fifty years later, Jews from all over are still marching in the parade, which makes me very happy.  Enjoy!  But remember, marching in the Salute to Israel Parade isn't a substitute for making aliyah and living in Israel. 

The message of this week's Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week is that you're not supposed to think of the pros, cons and difficulties.  Just come here and live in the Land G-d promised us.