For Israelis, among the most challenging holidays to negotiate are the dual haggim of Memorial Day and Independence Day. In Israel, these commemorations are sandwiched back-to-back. And every year, it is a real strain for Israelis to transition between the two holidays. One must go from the agonizing lows of remembering family members and neighbors who have fallen, to the expansive joys of living in a free and democratic Jewish State, within the space of a few hours.
How do Israelis move from one emotional pole to the other so quickly, every single year? With music.
For Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron), sorrowful and melancholy ballads are broadcast over radio and television across Israel – submerging the entire country under the soft sway of a funeral dirge. After nightfall, however, and the spotting of three stars in the sky, the most joyful pop music erupts volcano-like out of every town square. With the arrival of Independence Day (Yom HaAtzmaut), the entire community dances together to celebrate the miracle of those freedoms.
Thanks to the work and ingenuity of the St. Paul Jewish Federation – and their partners in the Sovev-Kinneret region – we got a little taste of how Israelis make this switch. And boy, was that the right idea.
The St. Paul Jewish Federation brought the musical duo of Gal Bar-Natan and Daniel Maguri, who live and perform near the slopes of Mount Tabor, to the Twin Cities for a set of performances that stretched an entire week. The duo have day jobs in Israel – Gal in high-tech and Daniel as a restauranteur – but their real passion is connecting with others through the Israeli songbook. As Bar-Natan explained to her young children as she packed her bags for this visit, she was leaving home to teach friends in the United States all about Israel. Even at their tender ages, that is an answer that her children seemed to accept and admire about their mom.
And Bar-Natan and Maguri understood the assignment. At the Memorial Day services at Beth Jacob Congregation, the two drew from Israel’s contemporary playlist, playing anthems that have become especially well-known after the attacks on October 7: Roni Daloomi’s Tachzor (Come Back), Miri Mesika’s Huatir Acharav Havarah (He Left a Girlfriend) and Amir Dadon’s Yesh Ein Sof (There is No End). (You can see a bit of Gal’s reprise of Tachzor later in the week from this link here.) The sanctuary at Beth Jacob had a teary silence while the duo played, as if everyone was watching the funeral processions of the fallen pass by in front of us. It was bracingly quiet and profound.
On the next night, marking Israeli Independence Day, Bar-Natan and Maguri tugged us out of our gloom with two very soulful renditions of pop anthems on freedom: Ethnix’s Tzipor Midbar (Desert Bird) and a second Amir Dadon song, Or Gadol (A great light). These were bold and inventive song choices, particularly because the duo was playing in a sanctuary; but it was just what our Israeli doctors would have ordered. As they jammed, we soared … into joy.
That joy spilled over into the next day’s Independence Day luncheon at the Capp Center, too. After a few songs, the duo invited community member Dorit Levi-Lidar onto the stage with her flute to join them in an impromptu (and thoroughly wonderful) jam session. And it wasn’t just generosity to a fan girl in the audience; Bar-Natan and Maguri were making a larger point about the dual holidays: On Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, live music isn’t just what we do with each other, it is what we do for each other.
All of which is to say that the St. Paul Jewish Federation’s experiment was a great success. So, for Israel’s 78th Birthday next year, can we persuade even more Israeli musicians to join us for the holidays? I hope so, and I am starting on my prayers to heaven now.
Eric Lipman lives in the eastern suburbs of St. Paul and loves live music.
