Have I got a band for you!

There’s nothing like a Jewish wedding. A special ceremony for people in love, a wedding symbolizes many things close to the Jewish heart: continuity, family, joy, blessings and much more.

A huppa not only allows two people to enter into holy matrimony, but also provides the extended family and friends a chance to feast, socialize and, most importantly, dance.

At an Orthodox wedding, the band provides the heartbeat and soundtrack of the joyful event. Much like the wider religious world, the wedding band scene is fractured into distinct groups catering to their respective constituencies.

Somewhere in the broad groupings of religious Jewry where religious Zionism and hozrim b’teshuva (the newly religious) meet, over the past few years a group of ensembles have emerged with a new, eclectic and creative sound. Incorporating world music, reggae, Middle Eastern, rock and Latin flavors into the old base of hassidic, Klezmer-style dance music, these groups are striving for artistic expression within the limitations of the wedding format, and are actually continuing the time-honored tradition of updating Jewish music to contemporary aesthetics and taste.

Avichai Paz Greenveld, keyboardist and lead singer of the group Kumi Ori, which takes it’s name from a phrase in the Lecha Dodi prayer from the Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service, has seen the new sound develop right under his nose. At just 23, he is already a 10-year veteran of the simha (Jewish celebration) world. At age 13, he started playing solo hassidic music on the keyboard, with automatic drum machine backup.

“Years ago, religious music was only wedding music,” he tells In Jerusalem while driving to a wedding. “Now, you have all these bands putting out their own CDs of original music but also playing weddings too, and bringing in so many different styles.”

Greenveld, who grew up in Gush Etzion and currently lives with his wife and two children in a small settlement near Hebron, attributes the change to the newly observant. The religious world, he explains, is sometimes closed and those entering it from outside are able to bring in creative energy.

“It’s all because of [the late] Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach,” he says. Carlebach, who passed away in 1994, had a huge influence on the hozer b’teshuva movement and on the Jewish music world in general, as many of the artists interviewed for this article were quick to point out.

Kumi Ori has been together for three years and is known for playing tight arrangements of high-intensity hassidic and rock rhythms mixed with Klezmer horn melodies, roots-reggae interludes, drum and percussion breakdowns and jazzed out bossa-nova versions of classics like Mizmor L’David.

Despite this eclecticism, the group is – musically speaking – on the conservative side of the spectrum and is more focused on re-interpreting wedding music than on developing original material, although it does some songs written by Greenveld, who recently released a CD of his own compositions.

“Most of our weddings are for young couples in the yeshiva-oriented religious Zionist world,” explains band leader, trumpeter and manager Yoav Amitzur, 26, who directs the group onstage with a constant series of gestures indicating rhythmic breaks, shifts in tempo and soloing opportunities.

While Kumi Ori is on the more traditional side, the Jerusalem-based Aharit Hayamim (The End of Days) is an ensemble known as a spiritual, religious reggae band that also plays weddings. Most of the members grew up in Gush Etzion and they have been together for four years.

“It has always been an artistic thing,” says Yehuda Leuschter, their perpetually happy lead singer and keyboardist. “But we’ve done weddings since the beginning, and now we are playing a lot. This week we played a very straight kind of wedding, then we have a freaky hippie wedding, and then on Thursday we are playing for a couple from Peru… I don’t know how they heard about us.”

Aharit Hayamim regularly performs its original music in venues around Jerusalem and over the years has built up a strong local following. The members also organize a music festival each summer in the hills of Gush Etzion which this year attracted more than 1,000 people, and have just self-produced their debut CD.

“Lately, we are doing our own songs at the weddings and also wrote some new music, reggae stuff, and people are liking it,” Leuschter says. “It’s totally different from doing a concert and I think it’s better… at a wedding people are already hyped, you start rocking and they are moving. The bride and groom are there, the whole crowd is already happy… it’s precious.”

While Aharit Hayamim seems to have found the balance between creative drives and the wedding world, for others the schism is too much to bear and a clear distinction must be made between their more creative music efforts and performing at weddings.

“You know, if you are trying to make original music out in the world you have to be careful how to present yourself,” says Shmuel Nelson, the soft-spoken leader of ‘Eden Mi Qedem. “If you go out to a wedding, your main obligation is to make music for the couple, for the audience. It’s a service. People are there to be happy, not necessarily to connect to the music on an artistic level.”

Nelson, a guitarist and singer from an Ashkenazi-American background, became enamored of Middle Eastern music while learning at Yeshivat Bat Ayin, and through diligent study and immersion in Middle Eastern music, he grew proficient in the complicated scale system and singing style of piyutim (Middle Eastern religious songs) and Arabic classical music.

The ‘Eden Mi Qedem band, originally conceived as a creative endeavor that would also play a lot of weddings, quickly evolved a unique sound combining Middle Eastern music, heavy rock, psychedelic jamming and electronic elements. This mix turned out to be popular for the hozer b’teshuva crowd, but sometimes clashed with the sensibilities of wedding guests who had pre-conceived notions of what Jewish wedding music should be.

While recording the group’s recently released, debut CD, Nelson realized that he needed to separate the project from the wedding scene.

“What I am trying to do with the original music is distinct and not something that people associate with wedding music, but it has the influences,” he explains. “For ‘Eden Mi Qedem, I needed to have creative freedom, to be able to play other venues.”

To that end he recently formed a new band, Etz Zamir (The Singing Tree), which uses the same rhythm section as ‘Eden Mi Qedem, but draws from a larger pool of other musicians at need, giving the ensemble greater stylistic flexibility than many groups out there.

With Etz Zamir, he says, “We can provide what’s appropriate for the crowd, couple and family. We do traditional music and can also do Jewish and Arabic Middle Eastern music and classic rock, but the focus is on wedding dynamics.”

Another creative ensemble that is making waves in the wedding scene is Noar Carmi’s Tizmoret Ha’amamit (The People’s Orchestra). Carmi, who lives in Motza and who became religious many years ago, is one of the most respected bassists in the Israeli ethnic music scene and was a member of the very influential Bustan Abraham, the Jewish-Arab ensemble that kick-started the world music scene back in the Nineties.

“The Tizmoret is a gypsy-Klezmer band,” he explains in a brief telephone conversation on the way to a gig. “[Playing weddings] is new for me… I have mostly been inside the ethnic music scene doing performances. We do traditional songs and it’s very energetic. We also have our own original material but that has asymmetrical rhythms and isn’t really for wedding dancing.”

In performance, Carmi eschews the traditional placement of bass players – performing at the front of the stage next to the audience – and acts as conductor for the ensemble, which includes a horn section of three players and Latin-style percussion.

The group also sometimes performs a set gypsy-brass band style, with Carmi playing the tuba (his original instrument) and the band members descending into the midst of the dancers, resulting in Balkan-esque, horn and drum renditions of traditional hassidic melodies.

The Tizmoret released a CD of Carmi’s original compositions last year and most recently performed to an enthusiastic crowd at the Israel Festival, but the group is something of a side project for Carmi, who is in constant demand as a freelance bass player.

At the other end of the spectrum are groups like Inyan Acher (A Different Idea), one of the most successful bands focused specifically on weddings. Together for six years, the group was formed by a group of students at the Rimon Music School and was actually not intended to be a wedding band at all.

“We wanted to be a Jewish music band, we thought we would record and perform,” recalls drummer Akiva Meller, 31. “We figured if we played a few weddings a month we could be able to scrape by, get an old car and pay the rent. But before we even entered the recording studio a friend of a friend heard about us and wanted us for his wedding… since then most of our paying work has been weddings and that was a big surprise. We were doing acoustic rock, post-Shlomo style. Now, we play 120 events a year and during the summer we play five nights a week.”

He continues: “In the wedding world, we were able to bridge the gap between the Israeli crowd and the post-Carlebach crowd. We filled a need that was stronger than we knew. After Rav Shlomo died, there were his close students that had bands, like Yehuda Katz of Reva L’Sheva and Chaim Dovid, but they were mostly in the English-speaking world.

“Now we are in the second era with a bunch of bands like Sinai Tor, Yirmiyahu, Shlomo Katz, and Aaron Razel… there is a whole Israeli scene of bands that do weddings and also release original material… it’s hard to survive if you are not going to do weddings; there are just not that many performances.”

Wedding music, Meller says, used to be more standard, “The ‘Nagina’ style that came out of New York, the keyboard and brass section style. It was more American, more classically Jewish. Now there are so many influences… we were one of the first to play Irish and country music at weddings, now there is a lot… there are nearly a dozen bands that play the style that we do.”

Inyan Acher, through its connections with Bnei Akiva, has performed concerts in Vienna, Denmark, Sweden and in the US and is currently booked solid with weddings through Rosh Hashana. Despite their success, the band members, like nearly every musician mentioned in this article, still have day jobs.

“The money is pretty good but people think it’s better than it is,” says Meller. “For about three months of the year there isn’t work; during the Omer [between Pessah and Shavuot], the Three Weeks [between the fast of the 17th of Tamuz and Tisha Be'av] and around the hagim [festivals] you don’t have weddings. You can’t raise a family just playing in a band… three guys are teachers, one guy works at a bank and I am entering school to study psychology next year. It’s normal for our genre, and for Israel especially.” According to Meller, for bands in the religious Zionist or modern Orthodox worlds, there is another barrier to achieving success, namely competition from the rest of the Israeli music scene.

In the haredi world people only listen to haredi religious music, so even with its limited market it is possible to achieve exposure. Religious groups that are more open to mainstream Israeli society also listen to regular, Israeli pop music and many other kinds of music, so a band doing original material faces competition.

There are also those who play weddings and produce original music, but have another agenda, like Nahla’ot’s own Shlomo Katz, who just released his long-awaited album Vehakohanim and is currently touring in the States. Katz’s music, while diverse, is solidly rock-oriented and he has even been known to pull out Neil Young covers in concert.

“In terms of neo-Carlebach, or whatever you want to call it, Shlomo Katz is the man,” confirms his childhood friend and drummer Eli Farkas, 26, who has also performed with Reva L’Sheva, Chaim Dovid, Kumi Ori and many more. “Throughout the year we play several weddings a week, but he doesn’t want that to be his main thing. He just got smicha [rabbinic ordination] and he wants to teach Torah and to change the world, to bring people closer to Judaism.”

The diversity of the worlds of the modern Orthodox and the newly religious is reflected in the emerging music performed at their weddings and by the musicians that come out of these communities.

“It is amazing sometimes,” reflects Rabbi Shaul Judelman, 27, who moonlights as a saxophonist with the Shlomo Katz band. “Playing some of these events, seeing Jews from all different backgrounds… Russians, Ethiopians, Ashkenazim, Sephardim, all dancing together… then you realize they are dancing to an Irish jig!”

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Reva Le’Sheva’s sixth CD

Good things come to those who wait. Yehudah Katz, lead singer of Reva L’Sheva, has been waiting for four years to produce a new studio album.

“I was waiting for material I thought would be worthwhile,” says Katz, who is originally from

The result may well be the band’s best album yet.

Ve’sham Nashir (There We Will Sing) is Reva L’Sheva’s sixth CD. Released October 11 by Noam Hafakot, the album is a rich combination of strong vocals, well-honed, high-energy instrumentals, and powerful spiritual lyrics. Yet at the same time, the overall tone of the recording is sensitive and intimate.

The album’s themes are hope and glory, so to speak. The 12-year-old religious rock band, which has six members, has produced an album that is a blend of ballads, rollicking rock ‘n’ roll and original renditions of Shlomo Carlebach songs. It conveys a message of joy amidst sadness, rays of hope streaking through a curtain of chaos and confusion. It sings of God and his presence in Israel and in our hearts.

With eight original songs and four Carlebach numbers, the album is life-affirming. It resounds with a call to come together and celebrate God, love and this country.

The title track, for example, speaks of the yearning for the Temple to be rebuilt. With a rousing ethnic Irish American flavor, the song depicts the journey of the Jewish people on its way to the Holy Land. It ends with a powerful blast of voices chanting in unison “u’virnana na’aleh” (“and we will go up with joy”). To give the chorus a fitting sense of scale, Katz used four voices and mechanically multiplied them by 10.

The only English-language song on the album, “Jumpin’,” with a powerful vocal by Chanan Elias, continues the theme of the ingathering. It speaks about the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and their passage into Israel.

In “Tamid Besimcha” (Always Happy), Eliezer Blumen renders Reva L’Sheva’s quintessential message: Try to connect to the happiness of the world rather than to its sadness. Blumen’s tasteful, wailing guitar work on this album is reminiscent of the best work of Carlos Santana and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.

Katz’s composition “Tefilat Haderech” (“Travel in Peace”), written while crossing the border from Croatia to Serbia, is a reminder that God is with us, no matter where we go. Not something to be taken lightly or for granted, we need to invoke the words of the prayer to connect with Him.

The songs “Bo’i Kala” (“Dancing for the Bride”) and “Mi Adir” (“Overall”), which is delicately accompanied by mandolin and flute, celebrate the joy of interpersonal relationships. This is yet another way in which to seek and fulfill our capacity for happiness.

In that vein, the cover of the album is taken from a painting done by Katz’s wife, Michelle. In the picture, the figures gathered in front of the Western Wall are cloaked in an aura of sadness. However, a reassuring ray of hope shines through the darkness.

And that, as always, is the message of Reva L’Sheva.

Relaying that message in full force are Katz, doing vocals, guitar, and mandolin; Eliezer Blumen on guitar and harmonica; Elias doing vocals and keyboard; Danny Roth on drums; Adam Wexler on bass; and Nitzan Khen Razel on violin. And for an extra touch of ethnic flavor, the band’s former percussionist, Yitzhak Attias, was invited to add his special talent to the mix. Number six for Reva L’Sheva sounds like a keeper.

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Reva L’Sheva’s flavor still strong

To celebrate 10 years as a band, Reva L’Sheva has released a double live album, almost all recorded in one night in December 2002 at Club Tzora near Beit Shemesh.

Reva L’Sheva is the obvious leading candidate for the title of godfather to the post-Carlebach rock bands, and having lasted 10 years is certainly cause for celebration.

Back in 1994, when Reva L’Sheva first started to gig, it was a tight outfit known for long guitar jams and fierce rhythms. As the years went by, however, the band’s sound became significantly lighter and more digestible, but as Ten Years proves, Reva L’Sheva’s original flavor is still strong.

Fronted by Shlomo Carlebach disciple Yehudah Katz, Reva L’Sheva has changed lineups a great deal over the years, but the 2002 incarnation is seasoned and tight. Adam Wexler remains one of the most skilled and creative bassists in the genre, and Danny Roth’s drumming is as solid as ever. Chanan Elias is most noticeable on this recording in his role as backup vocalist, but the atmosphere and occasional solos we hear from his keyboard contribute as well.

“Mizmor L’David” is given the space-out-jam treatment, complete with atmospheric fiddle effects. Considered by many to be the cornerstone of any Reva L’Sheva show, “M’heirah” here is thumping as ever.

Overall, as with many two-CD sets, it’s possible that a one-CD version would have made for a more consistent experience, but there are enough highlights here to keep us interested, and besides, Ten Years deserves to be the document of an entire concert.

Reva L’Sheva: Band on a Mission

It’s one hour before Reva L’Sheva will perform a concert at Yeshiva University. Yehudah Katz, the band’s leader and founder sits in the school’s cafeteria, chatting with students and die-hard fans. Like many musical artists, he is a man with a message. Unlike most artists however, his humility is obvious. He does not seem too concerned about being credited as the messenger. He just desperately wants people to hear the message. His songs are about love—love of mankind as well as love of God. “I don’t know how we can expect God to bring Chessed (loving-kindness) into the world, until we show similar love toward our fellow human beings.” says Katz.

Katz was born in America and raised in a traditional Jewish household. As he grew older, he drifted away from religion, but then ultimately returned to an observant lifestyle and moved to Israel. He has been greatly influenced, both spiritually and musically, by the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. As is often the case, this has extended to his being musically influenced by The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan. But while Reva L’Sheva is hardly the first musical act to pay homage to both Carlebach and The Dead, their unpretentious attitude and own form of musical eclecticism renders them unique. When their fans rise out of their seats for spirited moments of dance, they are less trying to relive memories of past legends than they are enjoying a current moment with Reva L’Sheva. Some of the more memorable live moments are available for download on JVibe as well as on http://www.revalsheva.com.

True, the Carlebach influence is there and the band embraces it boldly. In fact, Reva L’Sheva’s live take on Carelbach’s “Mizmor L’David” seems a favorite moment for both fans and performers alike. Yet close listens to many of their other tracks reveal a whole slew of additional musical styles not normally associated with this genre. The touching “Horeni Darkecha (Show Me The Way)” might draw smiles from Garth Brooks fans for its musical similarities to “The Thunder Rolls.” “Ani Maamin (I Believe)” borrows a page from the Elvis (Costello, that is) songbook. The beautiful “V’Erastich Li (Two Rings)” would work quite well in a medley with The Moody Blues’ classic “Nights in White Satin.” However, it would be fairer to suggest that Reva L’Sheva shares influences with the above-named artists, rather than that they were inspired by them. One thing is clear, members of Reva L’Sheva follow their emotions and are comfortable playing in whatever style of music their emotions dictate for any given piece.

Perhaps the eclecticism can be traced back to the diverse make-up of the band. Eliezer Blumen (guitar/harmonica) was raised in Rural America and has previously recorded for Atlantic Records. Tomer Shlom (percussion) is an Israeli of Indian descent. Adam Wexler (bass) played with Frank Sinatra and The Four Seasons before he was even a teenager. Norbert Goldberg (drums) grew up in Argentina. Chanan Elias (keyboards) was a professional actor in Los Angeles (including roles in films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lungrin) before moving to Israel. Israeli violinist Nitzan Chen Razel rounds out the ensemble.

While its members put a good deal of attention into each show’s set list, the band relies on requests from the audience to keep shows fresh. While other groups often build a rapport with their fans, Reva L’Sheva manages to incorporate their fans into the show in a manner that appears neither hokey nor staged. The best part of any live show is when the band reacts to the fans reacting to the band, and Reva L’Sheva seems to take good advantage of this energy during their performances.

“Be at one with God,” advises Katz. “Once you realize how awesome God is, then you can truly fall in love.” Spoken like a true rock star in touch with his spirituality. Reva L’Sheva’s band members are messengers; music is merely their mode for transmission. Often it’s born-again Christian rockers or newfound Buddha-enthusiasts. This time it’s different: They’re one of ours.

Captivating the Jewish Soul

As I pulled up to the converted barn in Moshav Beit Meir – overlooking the Jerusalem corridor and the coastal plain – which serves as the practice studio for Reva L’Sheva, lead guitarist David “Harpo” Abramson called out, “You just missed a beautiful sunset.” I glanced westward over my shoulder and could see the pink remnants of the day draining from the sky, and agreed that I probably had.

We entered the cozy studio and sat down to talk, and I began to grapple with the definition of the band’s sound. Is it rock, soul, or something else? Band leader Yehuda Katz solved the question. “People listen to music’s attitude. That is what turns them on. Our attitude is Jewish. That’s what we are. That’s our music.”

But Jewish music has a lot of different elements. There’s klezmer, hassidic, cantorial, and others.

“Our music is happy,” says Abramson. “That’s what we learn, that’s what we do.”

Reva L’Sheva is made up of five individuals with music as their unifying factor. Band leader Katz is from New York, but spent a lot of time in Los Angeles before coming to Israel six years ago. He describes himself as a “close student” of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, with whom he studied for 23 years. Carlebach “influenced my life in a lot of ways,” says Katz.

Bass and guitar player Adam Wexler grew up in Minneapolis and started playing at age five. He immigrated to Israel in 1990, just prior to the Gulf War, and lives in Gush Etzion.

Abramson is a Habadnik who first immigrated to Israel in 1969. Following a stint in the army, he returned to the US for a while, but came back to Israel in 1991 after the Gulf War. “For me that war was a wake-up call. It was like ‘What am I doing here?’”

Percussionist Zvi Yechezkeli was born in Jerusalem of Kurdistani immigrant parents. He studied for a while in New York before returning here. He considers himself not religious, but “he is more spiritual than many religious Jews I know,” says Katz.

Avi Yishai is the drummer of the band. In June he was hospitalized for brain surgery and is not yet back with the band. The band managed to record its newest album, Etz Haim, beforehand. Yishai believes that “everyone who listens to this album will become happier,” according to Katz. He said he “felt honored to be able to do the album.”

Danny Roth, who has replaced Yishai on drums for a while, is originally from Los Angeles, and has been in Israel since 1989.

The band comprises people who are religious and some who are not, immigrants and native-born Israelis. The idea is unity.

“This is a society that insists on separation,” says Katz. “There is no harmony in separation.”

“People separate between Jewish music and Israeli music,” says Abramson, “but a lot of Israeli music is Jewish music. Look at the lyrics. Look at the songs.”

And indeed, a lot of the more popular songs from the past 30 years or so include references to Psalms or other Jewish texts.

THE band’s third album, Etz Haim, was released two weeks before Rosh Hashana. The English title of the album is Secrets.

“The real secrets about life,” says Katz, “are in the Etz Haim – the Tree of Life – as opposed to the Tree of Knowledge. In the Jewish schools we’ve been to, a lot of students are looking for inner meaning as opposed to just the dry knowledge. Kids are turning away from the mainstream, but they want to get high on Judaism.

“If more kids got turned on to who they are, living in the center of the world, there would be no more violence.”

Violence is a common topic in Israel today, and it also affects students. Abramson remarked that “today everyone is talking about ‘combating violence.’ It kinda sounds like ‘fighting for peace.’ It all sounds so violent. But it’s an option to fight violence with something other than violence.”

As if to further clarify, Katz added, “Carlos Santana said that he wants to create music with more spirituality. People are ready for music with real meaning. That’s what we do.”

Katz said that he “would love to play with Santana in Israel. This is where the meaning is.”

Katz told the story of his trip to Belgrade this past summer. “I stayed in the house of the rabbi. On Shabbat all the Jews of Belgrade, about 100, came to dance in the shul. They couldn’t believe that someone came to visit them. After Shabbat there was a concert for the whole community. One old woman came to me with tears in her eyes to say ‘Thank you. You should continue to write and play great music.’ It’s people like that that keep me going.”

THE NEW album is a refreshing production. Much of Jewish music is either cantorial, choral, or in the Mordechai Ben-David mold of single-person acts. Reva L’Sheva combines a number of influences and the result is truly unique. The band members will admit to being heavily influenced by ’70s rock ‘n’ roll groups such as the Grateful Dead, and by Jewish artists such as Carlebach. These influences are very noticeable on Etz Haim in selections such as “Oz Vehadar” and “Hinei Ma Tov,” which include some lively and tuneful guitar riffs along the Dead model. In addition, the band covers two well-known Carlebach tunes in “Yah Ribon” and “Simha Le’artzecha.”

What they are less prepared to admit to are other influences that are noticeable in their music. The vocals on “Al Naharot Bavel” and “Omdot”, both done by Wexler, sound very much like Bob Dylan in some ways, and the bold- voiced “having fun” style of “Horeini” is reminiscent of the Barenaked Ladies, whom most in the band profess never to have heard of.

A standout on the album is “Kol Haneshama,” written by Wexler. “I wrote it one way,” says Wexler, “then everyone in the band saw it, tore it apart, and put it back together. It’s better when everyone has a part in it. Like a community effort.”

The song is very upbeat, and very much in the style of good ’80s rock ‘n’ roll. And that’s the way the band likes it. “Our music is meant to make people happy,” says Katz. “We like to have a feel-good kind of sound.”

In this album, Reva L’Sheva hits the mark.

AS I left the studio after our 90-minute interview, I stopped again to gaze westward from the hilltop vantage point of the studio’s front steps. By now it had grown dark, and the traffic on the highway was a stream of light as it wound its way up to Jerusalem. Below my feet, the entire coastal plain from Hadera to Ashkelon was laid out before me like a carpet of lights. One cannot help but feel that the entire nation sparkles as the music is written in the heights above them. This is unity. This is harmony. This is Reva L’Sheva.

This year marks the beginning of what it is hoped will be an annual event in Beit Shemesh: the Beit Shemesh Jewish Rock Festival. Festival organizer Jonathan Zwebner believes that this has the potential to equal the Safed Klezmer or Eilat Jazz festivals.

The Beit Shemesh festival will include “Jewish rock and soul, geared toward religious and nonreligious people,” says Zwebner. “Beit Shemesh will be the first festival of this caliber in the center of the country. This will put Beit Shemesh on the map.”

And it does have that potential. The festival is being sponsored by a group of local hi-tech companies including 2AM, C-Safe, and ShoutMail. The idea is to promote the Beit Shemesh area as a modern, up-to-date place where cutting- edge business, hi-tech, and leading cultural events combine to attract the young professional element of society.

To that end, the city of Beit Shemesh is providing funding for the festival. Ilan Geal-Dor works as a volunteer for the city’s Department of Jewish Heritage. He says that the Beit Shemesh area is “experiencing remarkable changes. By the end of next year, the population is expected to have doubled from the 28,000 people who lived there in 1990. This presents challenges to the city in terms of adjusting to the new, larger realities. One solution is to increase the number of cultural activities such as this festival, which can incorporate the entire community.”

Geal-Dor said that the city’s funding for the festival – about 75% of the total cost – comes from specific budget provisions set aside for cultural activities.

The festival will take place at the Beit Shemesh amphitheater at the corner of Rehov Ben-Ze’ev and Sderot Ben-Gurion on Monday evening September 27, beginning at 6:30, and will feature Reva L’Sheva, Benzion Solomon, the Moshav Band, Lenny Solomon of Shlock Rock, Dov Shurin and the Zion Square Band, and Chaim Dovid Seracik.

Reva L’Sheva has just released its third album, a refreshing sound on the Jewish music scene. Yehuda Poch talked to the band members about their influences and their dreams. Box at end of text.