Israel Conn
sctions
CFHU hosts Israeli singer
Chava Alberstein will help to mark Hebrew U's 75th.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The "First Lady of Israeli Song" will perform at the Stanley Theatre Dec. 4 to help Canadian Friends of Hebrew University celebrate tlie Hebrew University of Jerusalem's 75th anniversary. So popular is Chava Alberstein tliat the concert has already sold out
Vancouveritcs who have not yet heard her voice - which has been described as "smoky, world-weary, elegant, beautiful," "pensive, compassionate," "lush" and "a fearsome, diva-like instrument" - will have to be satisfied picking up one of her CDs.
Alberstein has released approximately 50 recordings since the late 1960s, many of which have reached gold or platinum. Her first album, at age 17, was Hine Lanu Nigun iWe Have a Song); all of its songs were in Yiddish. Despite singing in Hebrew, Yiddish, English and French -she has performed in more than 25 countries - Alberstein didn't have a recordmg released in the United States until 1998, with Crazy Flower, a collection of greatest hits.
One of the songs on this compilation is "Chad Gadya," recorded in 1989. It is the traditional Passover song reworked to comment on Israel's response to the intifada. As a result of such commentary, Alberstein has become known for her political views. However, Alberstein told the Bulletin that she doesn't like to use the word "political" to describe the causes she cares about.
"I would not call it politics," Alberstein said. "In Israel, everything becomes politics. You say ■peace,' you say love,' you say 'politics.' But everything is not politics. I would like to think more of moral questions; questions of justice and injustice."
There are many issues in Israel that Alberstein said concern hen the fighting between tlie secular and Orthodox, the relationship with foreign workers -people who she categorizes as almost not having any rights. "It's not politics," she said. "I call it human issues."
Despite these problems and the current situation with the Palestinians, Alberstein remains optimistic and strong in her belief of Israel's right to exist.
"If you are losing your optimism, especially in this time, in a way, you're giving up on the whole idea of the state of Israel. There are people who are saying that maybe thus was a very short adventure, a very short experi-
Chava Alberstein
ence, maybe tliis is the end of the experience, mayb" it won't work anymore," she said.
"But I would not like to think it, especially when I travel in the world and I speak with different kinds of people and, of course, with Jewish people, and I know deep in my heart that the state of Israel is a necessity," she continued. "Now comes the political part... all kinds of power games and stubbornness, this is the leaders. I would like to hope that they will be ready to change their minds and their visions about themselves and work really for the good of the people and not just for taking down [each] other."
Alberstein was bom in Szczecin, Poland. Her family immigrated to Israel when she was four yeare old. Her father taught her to play the piano and the accordion, and her whole family was musical. But Alberstein credits a Pete Seeger concert that she attended when she was 12 witli inspiring her to choose singing as a career.
At first, Alberstein primarily recorded songs written by other musicians. In the 1980s, she began producing her own material.
"I came to a point where I had a lot of albums, I had the best people in the country \vriting for me, but then suddenly I felt that something was missing," she explained. "Everybody wrote his professional songs in his professional craftsmanship, and I was looking for something maybe less brilliant, less perfect."
And, witli that, Alberstein decided to try composing by herself
"I had to do it," she said. "And it brought me to subjects that I never thought of before because suddenly I could tell my avm stories in my own words. The first album was called Tlic Imnugrant and I told my own story of my family and myself coming in the early '50s to Israel. In the past, I didn't even tliink it was a subject for songs." □
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