Jacob's Ladder festival – more about folks than music
English-speaking Israelis ought to create a movement or a party of their own, though in Israel and the Middle East it might not last a week
The gathering of thousands of people at Kibbutz Ginossar last weekend on the shores of the Kinneret for a festival of music and community should be a noteworthy event but, as usual, it took place without much noise.
Menachem and Yehudit Winograd, the birth parents of this annual gathering, which began in 1974, like to call it the Maimouna of the English-speaking community. I like to think of it as a community retreat and sanctuary, more about the folks than the music.
Photo: Menachem Vinegard
We English-speaking Israelis and our families ought to create a movement or a party of our own. As one person suggested, it could be called the "friars party" because we respect each other and give one another the benefit of the doubt. Of course in Israel and in the Middle East we wouldn’t last a week.
Example: When we laid out our blanket in front of the band stand and placed a couple of plastic chairs on it to mark our territory, it was still there when we returned several hours later. People had set up around us but no one touched our stuff.
No politics were discussed, well, hardly. It was a pleasant break from the reality of post-Winograd Israel, Qassam-ridden Sderot, the plunging dollar. There were music venues inside and around the kibbutz' hotel. There were debut concerts from young artists like Geva Alon who does not come from an English-speaking home but prefers to write and sing his music in English. There were music and art workshops for children, dance and yoga classes, places to eat and drink and the entire weekend was orchestrated beautifully.
The atmosphere was so relaxed that when two IDF border police in their olive-green uniforms, looking hot and stressed, walked through they looked so out of place in our little haven. Even the security personnel expressed astonishment at how polite and well-behaved the crowds were.
Photo:Menachem Vinegard
I did not stay until Sunday morning but I am sure the clean-up crew had little to do except pick up the trash bags and recycable bottles neatly left behind by the hundreds of camping families.
And they weren't just aging Anglo hippies. One heard as much Hebrew as English. There were many young Israeli families camping out as well as second and even third-generation Israelis who enjoy country and blue grass, Irish and rockabilly performed live.
The music this year was not as exciting as it has been in the past. The program was lacking a group that would get the crowd up and on its feet dancing. There were also some sound problems at the main concert stage. No matter. The teens were dancing on the flanks of the main stage but it seemed they were ready to dance to anything, even a musical saw.
The Abrams Brothers were by far the most professional of the talent but they sang a few too many Jesus songs for my taste. Totally understandable though. How often are they able to perform on the shores of the Sea of Galilee so I forgave them.
Then there were the Taverners, a highlight for Jacob's Ladderophiles, back for a reunion concert of the raucous outrageous group of guys whose repertoire of folk tunes and bawdy bar songs were popular in the Seventies. Yet, now, when the 60-year-olds sing obscene lyrics it is not entertainment, just pathetic.
The best thing to come out of the Taverners is Yael Deckelbaum, an amazing talent and favorite among the multi-generational audience and the daughter of Montreal-based dentist and Taverner guitar player Dr. David Deckelbaum.
We were all given bright purple ID bracelets at the entrance. Mine stayed on until Monday morning because I just didn’t want to let go of the weekend.
