Leonard Cohen opens his pockets for Israelis and Palestinians
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, coexistence, General, Music
Most international musical superstars who come to Israel might pay lip service to promoting peace in the region – like Paul McCartney did with his ‘Friendship First’ concert – but few actually put their money where their singing voices are.
Leonard Cohen is apparently the exception. In the middle of a long world tour that has raised him to the ranks of the world’s most loved performers, Cohen could have easily skipped Israel at the end of his European swing. But not only did he want to perform in the country, he decided that he couldn’t take money out of the country.
According to his manager Robert Kory, who spoke to me on Sunday, the revenue from Cohen’s Ramat Gan Stadium show on September 24th will be donated through a new fund to benefit Israeli and Palestinian organizations that are working toward conciliation.
The Fund For Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace will provide financial support for organizations and individuals working in Israel and the PA, focusing on bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents who have experienced loss yet continue to strive to achieve peace in the region through their efforts.
Initial beneficiaries of Cohen’s altruism will be the Parents Circle – Family Forum, an NGO reprenting Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost children in the conflict and who have made the commitment to work together in building a consensus for peace, the Peres Center for Peace Children’s Medical Program, Combatants for Peace, an organization which attempts to bring together IDF veterans and Palestinian terrorists who have renounced their ways, and the Palestinian Happy Child Center, a developmental center that works with special needs children in Ramallah.
“I got a call from someone identifying themself as Leonard Cohen’s manager. I thought to myself, ‘what’s going on here?’” laughed the Parents Circle founder Yitzhak Frankenthal, whose son Arik was murdered by terrorists near Ramallah in 1994.
“Robert told me that Leonard would like to donate money from his show to people who have paid the price and still continue to do what they can to achieve reconciliation. They invited me to meet them in New York, and I discovered two wonderful people – Leonard and Robert, they complete each other. It was really special and unusual to find someone like Leonard who cares about what’s going on here in the Middle East and tries to do something to help.”
While Cohen will undoubtedly be razzed by some for trying to put his two cents into our region of the world, and for the fact that the fund is going to be administered by Amnesty International, not perceived as Israel’s greatests friends, the fact that he’s doing something concrete that seems to be only helping Israelis and Palestinians in a non-political manner, if that’s possible, can only be commendable. He’s my man.
And here’s a tip for Cohen fans out there – an announcement is going to be made this week about the launching of ticket sales for the show. Get your wallet ready.
Israelis go on tour
Filed under: Business, General, Music, Pop Culture, Travel
Springsteen's just a short flight away for Israelis.
But when bona fide heavyweights like Springsteen, U2, The Killers, Coldplay and Pearl Jam are only a couple thousand miles away in Europe, it’s a little hard to get excited about our dubious offerings.
But thanks to a couple of Israeli entrepreneurial endeavors, getting to those superstars isn’t any more difficult than finding parking near Ramat Gan stadium. On.Tour, a Tel-Aviv based online rock & roll travel agency – and similar companies like Kavei Hofsha – provide Israeli music fans with package tours to the top festivals and shows in Europe – including airfare, hotel, transportation and, of course, the coveted tickets to the shows, even those that are listed as sold-out.
And it’s suprisingly affordable – not much more than the vacation without the concert tickets would be. A quick glance at the On.Tours homepage finds a generous offering of summer festivals, including this year’s Rock Werchter, featuring Coldplay, Metallica and The Killers; Denmark’s Roskild with Coldplay, Oasis and Slipknot; Germany’s Rock Im Park (RIP) featuring The Killers, The Kooks and Placebo; Istanbul’s questionably titled Rock & Coke, featuring Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails and the Kaiser Chiefs; and some of the most popular attractions – the heavy metal festivals like Wacken 2009, The Ozora Festival and Hellfest. The average price for a package, including three or four nights’ accommodations, runs between NIS 4,000 and NIS 5,000.
“Pretty quickly, we learned that Israelis weren’t interested only in music festivals, but in concerts as well. There’s not a lot of top names coming here, and through us, you can go see just about any of the top names touring Europe,” Ido Mart, the company’s marketing director told me last week.
Indeed, the site offers packages for artists ranging from U2 and Springsteen to Britney Spears and Take That, all for prices similar to the festival tariff. According to Mart, On.Tours not only removes the hassle of arranging your own flights and accommodations, it also eases the stress of the biggest task of all – getting tickets to sold out shows.
Lianna Yedida, 25, who has traveled on three On.Tours packages, including two festivals in Europe and is signed up to see Radiohead this summer in Berlin, can’t praise the service too much.
“Everything was great, and of course, it’s easier than doing it yourself. They worry about everything,” she said, adding that the attention to detail was the biggest feature. According to Mart, those details include providing free transportation from the airport to the hotel and back again, and other amenities, like tips on after-show parties and access to them.
So, if you’re going to take a vacation outside of Israel anyway, why not make it a musical one?
Israeli chanson on the Riviera
The French aren’t exactly known for their love of things Jewish and Israeli.
But with music made by Israelis [] and Israel lovers gaining in popularity internationally, even the French are playing along. They’d better – some of the most interesting acts in the Israeli musical export roster are part French. Ramat Hasharon-raised, Steve Jobs-endorsed songstress Yael Naim was actually born in gay Paris. Cheeky electro pop DJ and singer Onili, who splits her time between the clubs and stages of France and Tel Aviv, was raised in Paris. Keren Ann moved there when she was 11.
Israel’s musical French connection was on display on the Riviera late July, when the 60th Nice Jazz Festival welcomed several Israel-related performers.
The three-stage, eight-night festival, located adjacent to a Franciscan monastery, the Henri Matisse Museum and Roman ruins, drew some 41,000 people to 48 performances by local acts as well as big names like Rufus Wainwright, George Benson, Diana Krall, Maceo Parker, John Mayall and Joan Baez.
As part of an extended French tour that included other festival appearances, Yael Naim was on the Nice Jazz roster, and the opening night included a performance by Avichai Cohen (pictured), the Chick Corea-affiliated, New York-based jazz bassist who hails from the Judean Hills.
Another descendant of the ancient tribe of Judean altar boys, international man of poetic mystery Leonard Cohen drew one of the biggest crowds of the festival on the night he played. The 73-year-old Herzlia High School-educated (true, that’s Montreal’s Herzlia High School) singer-songwriter who is reported to have shared a glass of cognac with Arik Sharon during the 1973 war is actually perfect for the Nice Jazz scene:
He wowed the international audience with a Nice-customized verse of “Hallelujah,” an acoustic version of the High Holiday liturgy-inspired “Who by Fire” and plenty of other favorites spanning his career. The festival grounds were packed with fans who sang along in awe, Cohen pausing at one point to warn a young lady who had climbed up one of the park’s olive trees to be careful.
In Europe, jazz festivals are often wide in scope, and Leonard Cohen’s show was well-suited for French audiences, his late-Sixties dreamy folk sound having long since evolved into a sort of post-country cabaret.
If only the reports of a mid-September Leonard Cohen Israel concert hadn’t been greatly exaggerated.
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