Home > News > Outdoor Concert for Ukraine and Jerusalem
May 10, 2022 in Hazzan Asa Fradkin
If I would have written this title a mere six months ago, many of you may have questioned my pairing of two entities that hold such polarizing places within us as Jews.
For much of the past several centuries, Ukraine was a hotbed of antisemitism with Khmelnytsky as a revered folk hero. There is still a train station and major monument in Kyiv named for him. It is estimated that his uprising against the Polish killed more than 330,000 Jews.
Then, in a flash Ukraine elected a Jewish president and Putin moved to declare them a Nazi state. All of the sudden we were looking at Ukraine from a vastly different perspective.
We have begun collectively remembering our deep roots in the Ukraine and sharing stories of our ancestors immigration from Kyiv, Belarus, Donetsk, Odessa, and many other locales.
My family was from Vitebsk in Belarus which sits right on the Ukrainian border.
Israel has chosen to take in up to half a million Jewish and non Jewish refugees and a portion will have permanent status.
Ukraine represents another chapter in our people’s collision with murderous leaders but it also holds a place in our hearts for the vibrant Jewish life we once built there and for the 200,000 Jews who lived there as recently as February.
Jerusalem, as in our constant hopes and prayers, represents the future. A future for new Jewish immigrants, a future for the displaced Ukrainians and the only land whose mission it is to defend the Jewish people.
Therefore we have decided to celebrate and uplift both past and future with this outdoor Concert for Jerusalem and Ukraine. To uplift the spirits of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters and to pray also for the peace of Jerusalem as we celebrate its liberation.
We are featuring 6 area cantors, including Hazzanim Henrique Ozur Bass, Hinda Labovitz, Elisheva Dienstfry, Rebecca Apt, and Jonathan Schultz who is coming from Florida to be with us.
There will be an Israeli sing along of Jerusalem-themed folk songs and songs of healing and hope as well.
Concert features:
It is a concert for the celebration and hope of Liberation. We hope you will join us!
Take a look at the video below to see the Oseh Shalom I will sing at the concert.
