Comedy for Koby
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Pop Culture, Profiles, War
The Mandells and their son Koby
That was 25 years ago, but as time went on, and we drifted apart amid the child rearing and careers. The next time I remember hearing about the Mandells was when they were in the news in 2001, after their son Koby was stoned to death by terrorists near their home in Tekoa.
I should have gone to pay a shiva call, but I was frozen in fear – Koby was about the same age as my oldest child, and all I could think of was how horrible it would be to lose her. In cowardly fashion, I wanted to stay as far away from dealing with that as possible.
Thankfully, the Mandells weren’t cowards. They bravely turned their tragedy into a gift to mankind with the Koby Mandell Foundation - a terror victims outreach organization they founded a few years after Koby’s death.
Next week, for the second year, a slew of Comedy for Koby shows will be taking place around the country to benefit the foundation, featuring four American stand up comedians under the auspices of Stand Up For Israel.
A rousing success since it was first launched by fellow American Jewish comic Avi Liberman during the Second Intifada, Stand Up For Israel was designed to raise the morale of English-speaking Israelis via some old country comedic entertainment. Each year since then, Liberman has returned to Israel with three different comedic friends and donated the proceeds to various worthy causes, the current one being The Koby Mandell Foundation.
This year’s shows, hosted by Liberman, feature stand up comics Jeffrey Ross, David Crowe and AJ (‘Almost Jewish’) Jamal. The tour features shows in six locations: June 3 – Ra’anana at Yad Labanim, June 4 – Beit Shemesh at Eshkol Hapayis, June 7 – Jerusalem at The Lab, June 9 – Modi’in at the Azrielli Theater, June 10 – Tel Aviv at the ZOA House, and June 11 – Efrat, at Mishkan Zippora.
Ross aka the ‘Roastmaster General’ is the ‘dean’ of insult comics, having been named ‘the meanest man in comedy’ for having led the renown Friar Club roasts of luminaries like William Shatner, Hugh Hefner, Donald Trump and Pamela Anderson.
I spoke to him this week, and we got on the topic of the prevalence of Jewish comedians.
”We’ve been trying to figure that out for a long time – it’s something no scientist can understand. I think maybe it’s that Jewish people are born with a brutal honesty that nurtures and breeds comedians. Maybe it’s something to do with being circumcised.”
Whatever the reasons, come out and laugh for a good cause with Liberman, Ross and their cohorts. It’s the least we can do for the Mandells and their worthy cause.
Returning to Israel and jazz again
Filed under: Art, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture, Profiles
Jaroslav Jakubovic, or JJ, as he’s known in some jazz circles, can’t stay away from Israel. And he can’t seem to stay in Israel either.
Jakubovic grew up in Prague and has fond memories of cutting Czech military orchestra rehearsal short to play an impromptu, defiant jazz “welcome” to the Soviet tanks as they rolled in to the city in 1968. At the age of 20, Jakubovic defected two weeks later and moved to Israel.
But soon he was abroad again, studying jazz at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and jamming with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Bobby Rosengarden and Buddy Rich in New York. By the end of the Seventies, he was maintaining a successful career as a saxophonist, doing time in jazz orchestras, releasing solo albums and serving as a session man and accompanist for Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Paul Simon and others.
But in 1980, he moved back to Israel. As he recently told Ha’aretz,
“When I got married, I promised my mother that my children would grow up in Israel and there was no way in the world I wouldn’t keep my promise.”
Jakubovic worked as a producer for CBS records in Israel over the Eighties and Nineties, overseeing landmark rock-pop albums including Shalom Chanoch’s Chatuna Levana (White Wedding), but he also worked on a lot of cheese and crap, if he does say so himself:
“I ran after nothing. To make money I got into all sorts of productions of bullshit that made me want to vomit. Terrible things. And in the end I also didn’t make money.”
He claims that his move back abroad in 2001 is unrelated to these more embarrassing projects, and he regrets the move. The Ha’aretz profile/interview was published on the occasion of a visit to Israel to celebrate the local release of Coincidence, a new project that brought him back to jazz performance, thanks to the cajoling of old Prague friend George Mraz, so JJ still comes to visit regularly.
And he’s trying to find new ways to get back involved with the Israeli industry, including through his own label, VMM, but there are no plans to officially move back here:
“I’m not planning to return and I really don’t miss the industry and the cliques. But I can’t disconnect from this place. The roots have sunk in deep. I miss Israel without realizing. It’s totally missing.”
Hassidism at Boombamela
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture, Profiles, Religion
A long-time disciple of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and a seasoned grassroots organizer, Michael Golomb used to spend his efforts marching against the Vietnam War. But since moving to Israel along with many of Carlebach’s Hassidim as part of that community’s mid-Seventies exodus from Haight-Ashbury, Golomb has busied himself with spreading a message of love at gatherings, encounter events and festivals – even mainstream, teenybopper-y ones like Boombamela, Shantipi and Beresheet.
Golomb and his crew have helped to organize Tents of Love and Prayer at several of these festivals, with the sub-camp serving as a festival within a festival for many party-goers. According to a statement released this week by director Guy Peleg, Boombalema’s planners love Carlebach-style Judaism because of its emphasis on happiness and love of mankind, making Golomb’s contributions key elements to the eye-opening, pan-spiritualist experience Peleg is trying to forge.
At the festivals, the Tent of Love and Prayer offers kosher food (which is even harder to come by during Passover), prayer services, meditation sessions, low-impact lectures and the like.
But it’s not always easy to keep one’s mind on lofty ideas when corporate sponsorship banners are flying high and scantily clad perky young ones are doing the same. And the mainstream festival circuit has received plenty of criticism in recent years about these trends from the hippie hardcore populace that first provided their critical mass about a decade ago. But Carlebach-style outreach was never afraid of “elevating the sparks” (as the Hassidic masters might have put it) out from the ditches. As The Chicago Tribune did put it back in 2007:
…Carlebach was one of the first emissaries of the Lubavitcher movement, a Hasidic group that pioneered outreach to disaffected Jews in the 1950s. Carlebach found himself particularly drawn to lost souls: drug addicts, runaway young people, the homeless.
Golomb carries this torch proudly, dancing while carrying a Torah scroll into the throngs of drum circle, sunset-hailing revelers at the opening evening of each festival. And it’s nice to see Boombalema’s leadership, which essentially represents the ultimate in the crossroads between mainstream pop culture and new-age (which usually means post-Jewish) spiritualism, appreciating his efforts.
This year’s three-day Boombamela Festival on Nitzanim Beach is set to kick off on April 9, with plans for this year including utilization of solar energy to cut down on electricity waste by half.
On Chaim Laroz and mastering the bass
Perhaps taking some cues from Yossi Fine on how to turn one’s self from a local bass session player into an international bass master, Chaim Laroz has been continually reinventing himself over the course of recent years.
An accomplished session man, producer, touring band member, composer and solo band leader, Laroz rose the ranks of Israeli bassists starting in the Nineties, when he collaborated extensively with the likes of Assaf Amdursky and Berry Sakharof. He also served as a member of Ra’ash, an alternative guitar rock act which released three influential albums throughout that decade.
Laroz helped Karni Postel rise to the brink of her mainstream pop successes of today when they formed the Bikini duo, with Postel handling vocals and Laroz handling almost all of the rest of the sound (including bass, samplers, oud and percussion parts).
Laroz branched still farther outward when he remixed a single for the Pet Shop Boys, arranged soundtracks for the celebrated Batsheva dance ensemble and formed a seminal groovetronica project called EQs, which essentially sent him off into the world of dancehall, dub and funk, where he primarily exists today.
In 2004 and 2005, Laroz spent some time living and gigging in Australia, but he came back to Israel. The unfortunately titled Laroz is a Rose album, his solo debut, came out ten years ago, and Laroz has been involved mostly with his career as a solo artist based in Israel ever since. His latest studio solo effort, 2006′s Soundsystem, includes guest spots from real-deal Jamaicans like Trevor Sax and Fitta Warri.
However, he’s still garnering attention internationally. In November, Philadelphia-based music blog Mad Decent called him “a true pioneer in the Israeli Reggae & Electronica scene” and linked to several downloadable and streaming Laroz remixes (Noiz in Zion also offered a remix recently). And locally he’s been active as well, touring sporadically in recent months and leading a bass master workshop in Tel Aviv this month.
The gloves are on for Israeli boxers
Filed under: coexistence, History and Culture, Israeliness, Profiles, Sports, War
The Philadephia Daily News recently ran a compelling profile of international Israeli boxers Ran Nakash (pictured) and Elad Shmouel.
The main thrust of the piece is that being raised in the Middle East makes one a particularly hard brand of badass, making Israel an emerging source for fighting talent:
“Israel is becoming what Russia was 10 years ago when the Klitschkos [current heavyweight titlists Vitali and Wladimir] were starting out,” said [matchmaker Don] Elbaum, who believes Nakash will fight for some version of a world championship before too long. “In the next couple of years, I think you’ll see an exodus of incredible boxing talent coming out of Israel.”
Some of the piece’s hyped-out tone is grounded in hyperbole (calling Israel “an area where to end any day alive qualifies as a small triumph” might be a bit of a stretch), but overall, these two guys do come off as seriously dangerous. Shmouel speaks about how his experiences witnessing a suicide bomb attack in a shopping mall when he was in his teens have made him tough. Nakash maintains a successful career as a Krav Maga instructor for the IDF.
And they discuss their impressions of the recent Gaza war and assess the prospects for real regional peace. But politics and punching prowess aside, what’s life in Israel really like?
Shmouel, who recently concluded his mandatory 3-year military service obligation as a first sergeant, said many Americans can’t begin to fathom the reality of the Middle East situation from what they see on television.
“You have to experience it to understand,” Shmouel said. “You have to be there. It would change people’s perspective, that’s for sure.”
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