Aliyah Blog 93: Cultural Centers

Heichal HaTarbut – cultural centers

If you’re going to do Hellenism the night after Chanukah ends, do it right. Twelve ‘international’ pianists were on stage playing together with distinctly Israeli names. Some of them must have two passports.

Heichal HaTarbut – cultural centers – are in most large cities here – including Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, Beer Sheva, Netanya, Petah Tikva, Rehovot, Kfar Saba, Modiin, Bet Shemesh, Lod, Alon Shvut …

In each there are a variety of classical music performances, theater, comedy, modern singers … including frum singers. These cultural centers are a national endeavor, spaced out around the country and if there’s one thing about Israel, within a few hours’ drive, often less than two, you can find just about anything which would take you a plane ride in America.

Tel Aviv Heichal HaTarbut

The largest cultural center is in Tel Aviv – and being religious and a non-Hebrew speaker (though I’m getting better – at the latter – in the converse), the selection of events I would attend is a subset of those carried out over there. We went to see musicians play instruments in a packed house.

Getting to the Center of Tel Aviv

As much as a I ragged on Tel Aviv having not been there since I made aliyah at the time in a previous diary entry, it’s quite nice and not anti-religious as Haredi yeshivas led me to believe. (I’m sure there are people …) Driving to the center of downtown was kind of like driving into Manhattan only no tunnel, no toll, less noise, a lot cleaner, and … less parking. Manhattan has street parking on either side of every street – Manhattan probably invented “alternate side of the street parking”. Tel Aviv is just like … “alternate side of the street? You mean the other cafe over there with a view completely unobstructed by parked cars?”

Once there – it feels … familiar. I have a religious friend who said when/if he moves to Israel, he’d go to Tel Aviv because it’d be the easiest to acclimate to from America. He’s probably right. I love Modiin – it’s modern and extremely well designed. It looks like Israel. Much of Tel Aviv looks like America. City dwellers from America should feel quite comfortable there.

Finding Your Seat

Once you get through all the single lane traffic filled roads (rather than taking public transit which probably would have taken longer, overall) and Waze seemingly joking about where parking lots are, we parked underneath the concert hall for about $16. (Side note: parking tickets are usually 100 shekels / $31 and I should pay them … they’re ruthless about giving them out in many cities – I only know of … nevermind.)

Then – the theater is big America, with some twists – or untwists.

The parking garage is really nice with continuous elevators between floors making your trip upwards a straight line (ish) rather than twisting back and forth. Once above-ground you’re greeted by a huge sign in English (sigh) and they scan the QR code on your phone as you enter – and some guy asks you if you have a gun as you walk in … it’s psychology.

Then – the Israeli twist. The tickets say your section number, row number, and so on – only there is little connection between what’s on your ticket and the signs and labels in the building. So … in true Israeli style, you have to ask for help. It’s a country designed on the principal of “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh” – we’re all responsible for one other – almost the polar opposite to Herrbert Hoover’s rugged individualism which underlies American philosophy.

I’ve written about this before, though now it’s an axiom of mine: the largest cultural difference between Americans and Israelis is rugged individualism vs. kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh.

I’m still not quite used to it.

Proper Decorum

The Rabbi who wrote my sefer Torah lives in B’Nai Brak, loves music, and told me about the principals of a permissible concert for religious Jews – the first being: “the audience must take part in the concert / dancing / music / singing and not just sit quietly in their seat like a bunch of goyim.”

Seems Hellenistic Jews are kind of on board with that – or aren’t so Hellenized.

The pianists played various music: Balero all the way through from beginning to end, other classical music, Beatles, Leonard Bernstein, and some incredibly, incredibly boring fugue of some kind. It repeated and repeated and repeated and being Jews, they were not taking this quietly. The rumbling, mumbling, and fumbling got louder at times and one of the pianists would motion for clapping which some in the crowd obliged … and then less the next time and so forth.

Finally, the song, or whatever it was, was getting really boringly repetitive and someone in the audience near the back yells, “Okay…” loud enough for the entire auditorium of 2000 people to hear.

The audience shutters – half of them instinctively “shussing the person” cutting their “shush” short while they hide a chuckle under their breath. The other half skips the shussing and goes stragiht to “chuckle under breath”. It’s like … we’re all together on this and someone had to do it.

Surprisingly, no ushers came to escort him out … and … come to think of it … no guys in suits walking around with flashlights showing people their seats. The place is well lit enough ‘in the dark’ to see where you’re going and … no one got up during the show … that I saw.

It’s so Israeli. We’re all together on this – we’re all friends and family – and someone has to be Nachson ben Amidov. Unclear if the musicians took the hint and wound down or if they were ending very soon anyway. Maybe the whole thing was a test to see how long they could go, and really, they were watching us and not the other way around. I know I’d do that.

Elanor Rigby

On the way out – still traffic through Tel Aviv though once hitting the highway, all was well. I forced my daughter to listen to the Beatles on the way home as she didn’t recognize Elanor Rigby during the concert.

After a few minutes, the phone cable came loose, it stopped playing, and she commented, “See – even your phone doesn’t like the Beatles.”