Bridging gaps: Bamizrach! 'In the East' festival offers the interface for healing

The last day of the four-dayer includes the annual gathering of the World Federation of Tunisian Jewry and the community’s Eid al-Banat festivities.

 GIL RON SHAMA (center) and his Diwan Halev ensemble.  (photo credit: Diwan Project)
GIL RON SHAMA (center) and his Diwan Halev ensemble.
(photo credit: Diwan Project)

Gil Ron Shama wants us to come together, and music, he believes, is the way to go about it.

The 52-year-old musician, storyteller, dancer, and producer intends to proffer the street-level collateral for that viewpoint at the Bamizrach (In The East) Festival, which takes place in Lod December 26-29, with Shama serving as artistic director for the second year in succession.

The ninth edition of the festival finds us still at war, with around 100 Israelis and others languishing in Gaza, and the country as a whole no less traumatized by the Hamas barbarism unleashed on our southern communities last October 7.

Notwithstanding the lamentable national and personal state of affairs, Shama feels the time is ripe for bridging gaps and for healing, and that he can help us proceed along that desirable course of action.

He certainly has the street cred to give it a shot. “Following my work as artistic director of the Mekudeshet Festival and the Sufi Festival, the Lod Municipality and asked me to create a festival fueled by the demographic mosaic of the city, [a festival] which has across-the-board appeal but also digs deep into the [ethnic] roots,” Shama explains. “I take and break down Lod’s ethnic and traditional domain, and forge this musical odyssey based on that cross section.”

That manifold approach resonates in the program of events and concerts across the four days, with the likes of ethnically leaning rock megastar Berry Sakharof filling the guest artist berth at the Diwan Halev date when the ensemble – founded by Shama – brings the curtain down on the festival at Heichal Hatarbut (December 29, 8:30 p.m.). The show forms part of the troupe’s ongoing 20th anniversary national circuit, with Shama et al. performing traditional Eastern Jewish music with more than the odd contemporary twist.

As around one-quarter of Lod’s residents are Arabs, I presumed Shama’s programming takes that into account, despite the principal line of festival genre thinking pointing firmly in the direction of Jewish liturgical music, albeit from Arabic-speaking climes.

Content connected to Eastern culture, including Arabic 

“Most of the content is connected to Eastern culture, which, in fact, includes a lot of Arabic,” Shama notes. We return to the common denominator theme. “There are things in the world of music which are not separate or divisive, as they are in the geopolitical arena.” Thank god for that.

Shama says the proof of the unison pudding is right there in full view. “If an Arab from Lod sits in the audience of a concert of music from the Tunisian Jewish community, he will hear Tunisian music sung in Arabic.”

That may be so, but in general Jewish liturgical music is sung in Hebrew, and often in the synagogue. Surely, for a Muslim or Christian, that will require some cerebral and cultural flexing.


Stay updated with the latest news!

Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter


Shama brings us back to the melodic side of the tracks, with some added harmonic inter-community coalescing. “A large portion of the piyutim [Jewish liturgical songs] are based on Arabic folk tunes. Again, there are no divisions in the world of liturgical music, because the majority of this material dates back to a time when Jews and Arabs shared the ‘diwan’ – the space where sacred songs are sung. Two hundred years ago, when a Jewish singer sang ‘Allah,’ that did not entail any of the [political] Zionist inflation,” Shama points out. “It just meant ‘God.’ When a Jew and a Muslim sat together on a street in Egypt and sang together, there were different connotations involved, without any political baggage.”

That sounds entirely refreshing and suggests that one can, indeed, get away from all the political and sociopolitical fissures simply by singing, or listening to, music together.

SHAMA VENTURES boldly into areas that go far beyond pure entertainment, and ensuring your paying audiences get their money’s worth.

He took his first steps in the performing arena in the wildly successful world music band Sheva, which, back in the late nineties and early 2000s, was pretty much the musical spearhead of the then highly popular New Age scene here.

He recalls those halcyon days and notes that each of the seven band members brought something else to the communal fray.

“Mine was my love for the Hebrew language,” he says. “That was my trip. We don’t have oil or diamonds here. This country’s great treasure is the language.”

That naturally led Shama in the direction of liturgical material and the works of some of the great writers, such as 11th-century poet and philosopher Shmuel Ibn Gvirol and late-11th-century, early-12th-century rabbi, philosopher, linguist, and poet Moshe Ibn Ezra.

The rise of New Age culture here was largely spawned by people coming home from post-army backpacking sojourns in India, some of whom brought the custom of sacred singing circles with them.

“I said, let’s do that in Hebrew,” Shama recalls. “I wanted to connect our past with everything we brought with us from India.”

SHAMA IS still at the forefront of that endeavor, which informs his programmatic choices for the Bamizrach Festival.

The last day of the four-dayer includes the annual gathering of the World Federation of Tunisian Jewry and the community’s Eid al-Banat festivities, which have been marked for millennia and celebrate the lead women have taken throughout Jewish history in the realms of rebellion, heroism and sacrifice.

Media personality Jackie Levy, whose family hails from Tunisia, will be on hand to relate some tales of yore, with liturgical singer (paytan) Daniel Saadon performing the musical slot and writer Esther Dagan Kaniel sharing some textual gems with the audience.

There is also an original festival-specific production in the lineup, which takes place at Heichal Hatarbut on December 28 (8:30 p.m.). The show stars radio presenter-cum-vocalist Livnat Ben-Hamou and singer-songwriter Orian Shukrun.

“Livnat went through a kind of personal transformation in the wake of COVID-19 and the war, and came into public view as a singer,” Shama explains. “This show is about very personal singing, but also very troubadour-like, and also liturgical. Livnat connects with her Moroccan roots.”

There is some added value too. “Livnat and Orian will host [veteran singer-songwriter] Micha Shitrit. It is going to be something special.”

For tickets and more information: (08) 698-6167 and lod.smarticket.co.il