On a warm but pleasant July night,
Ziggy Marley, son of the late Reggae singer Bob Marley,
defied those who called for him to boycott Israel
and performed with other musicians in Jerusalem’s Gan Sacher, Sacher Park.
The huge stage took days to build
and by concert time much of the park and its paths were closed to the public.
Security was tighter than usual at this event,
which made jumping the fence to crash the concert a bad idea for these two fellows.
Inside were hundreds of mostly young music fans,
but the music could be heard outside the entrance, located on top of the hill,
at the other end of the park,
and by people all around the neighborhood until late that night.
There was plenty to drink,
while large screens projected
the performances to the crowd.
No chairs were in sight… but plenty of hair was.
Instead of the usual meal of a sandwich wrapped in plastic,
a grill was set up to feed the police on duty.
Meanwhile,
Paul Simon was performing in Ramat Gan and got all the media attention.
On the way home I passed a really big crab making its way to the concert.
He or she must be a loyal Reggae fan, maybe a Rastafarian?
With so many Jerusalem cultural events how can you be crabby…
maybe if you live in the neighborhood and do not appreciate the music?
This is good. We still have artists coming to perform in our beautiful country defying calls for them to boycott us. Ok Paul is getting on in years, but he came. Bob Dylon and not too long ago, Leonard Cohen all with their poetry of words and songs.
Renee Fleming is to come this week to Jerusalem to end the culural season, and quite a season it was…
I believe you make some good points. I do want to point out that not every Jew holds to this (relatively) new concept of the 3 Weeks. The 9 Days themselves began as a humrah (stringency). The Ramba”m is silent on both of these concepts, mentioning instead the “week of” 9 b’Av. He also mentions the custom of refraining from shchitah (slaughter) from Rosh Hodesh Av.
On the other hand, if the majority of Jews do hold to the 3 Weeks in a give area, then I do not think it unreasonable to have this respected.
Thanks. Yes, most Sephardim do not refrain from listening to music for the 3 weeks.
There were so many musical programs and events last week…the list is too long to mention!
Now as we enter the 9 Days, there are more restricitons, such as eating meat and drinking wine,
and then the week of 9 b”Av itself as you mentioned. Chodesh tov.