Source: J. Weekly

 

A group of Jewish and Arab women from Jaffa is featured on Israeli folksinger Chava Alberstein’s recently released album “Baruch Haba.”

The women are from the all-women choir Shirana, which was launched by the Arab Jewish Community Center of Jaffa in 2008 and includes Jewish, Christian and Muslim women. The choir has performed at a number of festivals in the Jaffa area, singing a wide range of songs in Hebrew, Arabic, English and Greek.

 

Alberstein, who has recorded more than 60 albums and is considered one of Israel’s seminal artists, contacted the women last August after receiving a recording of the choir singing a version of her “Chad Gadya.” The song, in Hebrew and Arabic, is a play on the traditional Passover song, but with additional lyrics at the end that are critical of the Israeli occupation and its effects on Palestinians and Israelis. On her new album, Alberstein asked Shirana to sing with her on the title track “Baruch Haba,” bringing the sounds of the choir to a far wider audience.

 

AJCC is a community center in Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood that boasts 3,000 members from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Programs run at the center focus on coexistence and fostering dialogue and understanding among Jews and Arabs. Shirana is Israel’s only all-female choir featuring women from all three religions.

 

Idan Toledano, Shirana’s musical director, said he reached out to contact Alberstein, sending the disc of Shirana singing “Chad Gadya” to a friend who plays with the famous folksinger.

 

Toledano, who also plays instruments and does vocal arrangements for Shirana, said that performing with Alberstein was a “huge honor and a great joy”

 

Toledano said he sees the choir and the projects launched by the AJCC as bigger than just a forum for artistic expression, saying, “this is probably the only place in Israel where, through music and art, you have the ability to bring together people who live in the same neighborhood and have probably never spoken with one another.

 

“With music it just happens, people come together, and perform together, it just happens naturally. I think it’s a small example of how things need to be all over Israel,” Toledano said.