"Hava Nagila" (Hebrew: הבה נגילה) (lit. Let us rejoice)

Many of us have danced to Hava Nagilah. But how many of us know where it comes from? Here is a charming excerpt from a forthcoming documentary (featuring the co-creator of "Friends," Harry Belafonte, and Leonard Nimoy!) that has the story.

http://www.indiegogo.com/Hava-Nagilah-What-Is-It
This video is a fundraising clip forfilm Hava Nagilah: What Is It? If you'd like to support the making of the film, please make a tax-deductible donation at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Hava-Nagilah-What-Is-It
Everyone who gives $18 or more will get a credit on the film!

Lisa, Bach and Abu Gosh

מצא עוד סרטים כאלה ב-Ein Hod עין הוד

Lisa Verchovsky ( Ein Hod ) sings
J.S.Bach-"Et Exultavit Spiritus Meus" from "Magnificat"
abu gosh 2.1.2010
on piano eyal bat
The village of Abu Gosh has important Christian connections. Beginning in the twelfth century, Christians began to identify Abu Gosh as Emmaus, where Jesus appeared after the Resurrection (Luke 24:12-31). They imagined an old caravansary they found by the village spring as the destination of the disciples as they walked along the road about seven miles from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13).
The villages impressive Crusader church, in a tranquil garden setting, is built over that spring. Its walls are adorned with paintings of New Testament figures some of the oldest medieval frescos in the world.
Abu Gosh has also been identified as Kiriath Jearim, where the Ark of the Covenant was brought after Philistine captivity (1 Sam. 6:21); a church on the hill with a panoramic view marks that spot.
ליסה ורכובסקי( עין הוד ) שרה באך באבו גוש
ein hod עין הוד

50000 books for free

The Brattle Book Shop was founded in the Cornhill section of Boston in 1825 and has been in the hands of the Gloss Family since 1949. Over the years George and his son Kenneth built this shop into one of the largest antiquarian bookshops in the country.
Housed in a three-story building in the heart of Downtown Boston, The Brattle Book Shop carries an impressive stock of over 250,000 books, maps, prints, postcards and ephemeral items in all subjects. In addition to its general used and out-of-print stock, The Brattle Book Shop also maintains an inventory of collectibles, first editions and fine leather bindings in its rare book room.
Note: Cornhill Street in Boston was once known as the book selling centre of the USA. The shop being demolished was the last remaining bookshop in the Cornhill Street.(via British Pathe)

Beating the Kos

It was the Turks who early on discovered the power of military bands to excite fighters while encouraging their warrior spirit, and to maintain discipline in unity during marches in times of peace. While the roots of this tradition reach back to the Hun Empire, Turks used music on the military field in an active and functional way. In particular, the morale of the army was boosted by the incessant beating of the large drum, "kos" (a large kettle drum) and by playing inarches.
A Chinese historian described a Chinese general who had come to the region of Balasagun to Central Asia while on duty. The general had brought an ensemble of Hun (Turkish) instruments to China upon his return and had them played at the palace. This proves that Central Asian Turks used military bands in centuries previous to the advent of Islam. Central Europe was introduced to the Ottoman military ensemble, known as mehterhane, in the processions of Turkish envoys. Due to the fact that this ensemble first appeared at German battle fronts, the name, "Yeniçeri mızıkası" (Janissary band) was adopted into the German language. German and various Central European rulers and princes had an incessant desire to have their own mehterhane, and attempted many imitations. Eventually this new kind of military band ensemble came as far as Istanbul. A French style banda (band) was first shown to Selim HI in Istanbul. The French diplomat Raymond de Verninac came to Istanbul in April 1795, The new things that he displayed as soon as he arrived attracted a great deal of interest. Upon his first visit to the Ottoman Sultan, his car was preceded by a band and a squad of French soldiers. The French soldiers had attached bayonets to the ends of their rifles, and the diplomat proceeded to the palace among this ostentatious crowd.


click and play!
The American record company, G.C.R. (Gramophone Concert. Record, which was later to take the name "His Master's Voice"), began to make recordings in Istanbul in 1900. The company's first recordings became available in 1903. At approximately the same time. the German company, Favorite, entered production- While Turkish musicians were hesitant to lend their voices to recordings during these years, minority artists of Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Roma (Gypsy) origins entered the studios and made the first 78 rpm recordings- Among the features which are striking in the early period of 78 rpm record catalogues and collections are the presence of works such as polkas, waltzes, and marches, and the ensembles that played them. The ensemble entitled Garde de S.M.I. Ie Sultan which is presented to music lovers is the "Mızıkay-ı Hümayun" ensemble. There were 33 single-sided records made between the years of 1904-1911. Of these, 24 were marches with the remainder consisting of popular music of the day such as waltzes and polkas.

Yaddo: an artists' vilage in Saratoga Springs

One summer day in 1899, a private banker named Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina were walking through the expensive wildwood of their big country estate, Yaddo, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Suddenly Katrina stopped, listened, raised her hands "as if in appeal to that Something which was too vast for me to define." Few moments later she said with dreamy excitement: "Here will be a perpetual series of house parties—of literary men, literary women, and other artists. . . . At Yaddo they will find the Sacred Fire, and light their torches at its flame. Look, Spencer! They are walking in the woods, wandering in the garden, sitting under the pine trees . . . creating, creating, creating!"
Creating at Yaddo last week, at mid-season of the colony's twelfth year, was a typical group of writers and artists who have given substance to Katrina Trask's vision. But whether or not they fitted Katrina's romantic conception was an open question.

By contrast with aristocratic Katrina and the elegant capitalistic surroundings she provided, most of the season's 27 guests stood out in striking left-wing contrast: Poet Kenneth Fearing (Angel Arms, Poems), Critic Newton Arvin (Hawthorne), Novelists Joseph Vogel (At Madame Bonnard's), Leonard Ehrlich (God's Angry Man), Henry Roth (Call It Sleep), Daniel Fuchs (Low Company).

Monday, Sep. 05, 1938
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The First Hebrew City

Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city, is quoted in mythological scriptures as having been, "...built on a deserted piece of land in the sand dunes north of Jaffa." Originally founded by 60 families as a small neighborhood known as "Achuzat habaiyt" in 1909, Tel Aviv has proven its ability to constantly reinvent itself, despite its place in the periphery. Our main foci are vision, myths and culture -- all of which fueled Tel Aviv's development. These topics are recited and untangled by Maoz Azaryahu, well-known author, historian and expert on Tel Aviv.

Arie (Lova) Eliav dies at 88

Arie “Lova” Eliav (Lifshitz), one of the founders of the Labor Party and one of the last members of Israel’s “greatest generation” of state-builders, died In Tel Aviv on Sunday at the age of 88.
Eliav was both a prominent politician, serving in five Knessets as part of a number of left-wing factions, and a public figure known for his grassroots action – from smuggling into pre-state Palestine thousands of Jewish refugees to establishing the eastern Negev city of Arad.
Eliav was born in Moscow in 1921 and immigrated to Israel three years later. He was educated in the most prestigious schools of pre-state Palestine, finishing high school at the Herzliya Gymnasium and then studying history and sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.(more...)

Андре́й Андре́евич Вознесе́нский (12 мая 1933, Москва — 1 июня 2010)

Ни славы, и ни коровы,
Ни тяжкой короны земной -
Пошли мне, Господь, второго,
Чтоб вытянул петь со мной.
Прошу не любви ворованной,
Не милости на денек -
Пошли мне, Господь, второго,
Чтоб не был так одинок;

Чтоб было с кем пасоваться,
Аукаться через степь,
Для сердца - не для оваций,-
На два голоса спеть;
Чтоб кто-нибудь меня понял,-
Не часто, но хоть разок,-
И с раненых губ моих поднял
Царапнутый пулей рожок.

И пусть мой напарник певчий,
Забыв, что мы сила вдвоем,
Меня, побледнев от соперничества,
Прирежет за общим столом.
Прости ему - он до гроба
Одиночеством окружен.
Пошли ему, бог, второго -
Такого, как я и как он...

Музыка Высоцкого на стихи Андрея Вознесенского для спектакля "Антимиры"
Andrey Andreyevich Voznesensky (Russian: Андре́й Андре́евич Вознесе́нский) (May 12, 1933, Moscow, USSR – 1 June 1, 2010, Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet and Russian poet and writer who has been referred to by Robert Lowell as "one of the greatest living poets in any language". He was one of Russia's "children of the 60s".