JEWISH PRESS VoLLXXX
No. 16 Omaha, NE
17 Tevet, 5761
January 12,2001
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR $0 YEARS
Thousands Rally In Support of United Jerusalem - ;;&- '.
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Sol Zim Headlines Beth El Concert by OZZIE NOGG
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Teas of thousands of Jews from all speetrams of the community came to the Kotel last week for a prayer meeting led by both, religious and political leaders. Tlie rally was called by settlers' councils as "well as many other diverse religious organizations. ..It_is in response to the present wave of Palestinian led terror, which has caused recently so
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much death and injury all over Israel, as well as to galvanize public opinion against the possibility of coming to an agreement with the Palestinians that might include ceding sovereignty of the Temple Mount. Farther large rallies have been called in Jerusalem this week in support of retaining fell Israeli control of Jerusalem. Photo by ISRANET.
Israeli Rally Tells the World: Get Your Hands Off Our Capital by NAOMI SEGAL and JULIE WIENER — — — — —
JERUSALEM (JTA)--When Zelda Brown planned her vacation to Israel this winter, she probably didn't expect to be spending it like this. Brown, of Queens, N.Y., was among tens of thousands of Israelis and other Jews—as many as 100,000 people, according to an Israel TV estimate -who gathered outside Jerusalem's Old City walls Monday night for a rally to preserve the unity of the city under Israeli rule. T m delighted to be here at the time of the demonstration," said Brown, who was there with her husband and a Mend. "It's very inspiring. It's just a shame there's a need for this." As President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak race to advance an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal under intense time pressure—Clinton leaves office Jan. 20 and Barak faces elections Feb. 6~many Jews are balking at the concessions Israel is being asked to make in its capital and on its holy sites. : Monday's rally, under the slogan, "Jerusalem, I Pledge Allegiance," drew demonstrators not only from the fervently Orthodox and religious Zionist sectors, but from Israel's secular mainstream as well. Organizers said that some 1,000 buses brought participants from across Israel and from settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "I believe Jerusalem must not be divided," said Avram Lahiani, who brought his wife and child from the coastal city of Acre, north of Haifa. "All Israel belongs to the people of Israel." Organizers initially had intended for rally participants to encircle the Old City's stone walls in a human chain. But the plan was scrapped when police barred access to primarily Muslim areas out of fear of violence. In. a stark reminder of the ongoing conflict, the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo once
again came under Palestinian fire Monday night. No one was hurt, but an apartment was damaged. In the French Hill neighborhood, Palestinians tossed a firebomb at Israeli cars on a major Jerusalem thoroughfare. North of the city, an Israeli boy was wounded in a shooting attack on the Jerusalem-Modi'in road, which passes near the Green Line and has become a focal point for Palestinian attacks. Organizers of Monday night's rally described the event as nonpartisan and sought to prevent political statements and posters. But the gathering carried a distinctly political context, given the U.S.-led peace efforts that contemplate splitting Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians, and putting the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, under Palestinian sovereignty. Natan Sharansky, the Yisrael B'Aliyah Party leader who quit Barak's government last summer over expected concessions at the Camp David summit, was one of the organizers of Monday's rally. The gathering aimed to send a message to the world, and to the Palestinians, that the Jewish people will not abandon Jerusalem, Sharansky said. "Jerusalem is not a question of borders or security, but a question of the identity of the Jewish people," he said. In a move aimed at underscoring American Jewish support for Jerusalem, Ronald Lauder, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, ignored criticism of his decision to participate in the gathering. Barak has said he won't transfer sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians, but hasn't ruled out letting a third party run the site. Meanwhile, the Palestinians hardened their stance toward Clinton's proposals, saying they did not address Palestinian "rights."
Cantor Sol Zim, recognized internationally as a super star of Jewish music, will be the featured performer at the Beth El Synagogue concert scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 21, a t 7 p-m. Cantor Emil Berkovits and Hazzaii; G. Michael Horwitz will join Cantor Zim in a musical stroll From, Shtetl to Broadway. The evening will showcase original music written by Cantor Zim as well as selections composed by Cantor Berkovits. The program will include Sephardic melodies, Hassidic nigunim, operatic arias, popular ballads, Broadway show lanes plus traditional and median settings of Hebrew prayers and folk songs. "Many of the numbers are eatehy and light,* said Hazzan Horwitz. "They really move. It's the kind of music that will make the audience want to clap and sing along." Sol Zim's musical career began at an early age when he served as a child soloist with his father. Cantor Samuel Zimelman. After graduating from the Jewish Theologies! Seminary of America, the younger Zim studied privately with Cantor Moshe Koussevitsky and Shalom Seeenda. EncouragedfayRichard Tucker to study opera. Zim learned 20 operatic roles, but when offered contracts to both the Vienna State Opera Theatre and the Israeli Opera Company, Zim declined and chose, instead, to. devote himself solely to Jewish music. Today, Sol Zim is recognised as one of the world's leading cantors. Perhaps -.._" , ( best known as "* \ one of The " \ Brothers Zim, the group -' " , "* which he c^^' ~£founded, Sol * ^-1 Zim has rep'£** resented the V J ~ " United States -_ at the Israeli i *Hassidic Song Festival and was the" first ', American
;"S _«• com po s er to fL^-»wm honors in — that competition. His nine published song books of original music make up T h e Joy Series." Copies of this innovative collection, as well as Zim's CDs, will be available for purchase the night of the concert. From Shtetl to Broadway is open to the entire community. Advance General Admission tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets at the door are $18. All proceeds from the event support Beth El's Scholarship Program. For more information, call 492-8550. Cantor Zim is also appearing in Lincoln on Monday, J a n . 22, 7 p.m., at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He will be joined by the combined children's choirs of Tifereth Israel and B'nai Jeshuran. Tickets are $5 in advance, $7 at the door. Call 423-2678 for more information.
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