Noa joins Million Hands Peace Campaign (Israel)

Noa, proud to be part of the Million hands campaign together with so many people, including maestro Zubin Mehta! we will bring Peace anyway we can!!! and an agrement is the first step. after that, we embark on the long journey to rebuliding all that has been destroyed, especially trust and hope...they will be reborn, and so will we all!

הצמיחה המהירה שלנו מביאה את העיתונות להתעניין.
הנה כתבה שפורסמה היום ב"ידיעות אחרונות":
"שלושה ישראלים ללא השתייכות פוליטית הציבו לעצמם מטרה:
לגרום למיליון איש בארץ להעלות לאינטרנט תמונה שבה הם מושיטים יד לשלום. תוך זמן קצר הם הצליחו לעורר רעש ברשת ולהשיג 52 אלף תומכים, כולל מפורסמים רבים כמו רונה רמון, זובין מהטה ומשה איבגי. ולא, הם בטוחים שהם לא נאיביים."

תנו גם אתם יד.
ביחד נגיע למיליון ידיים.
#מיליון_ידיים

Noa's visit to the Knesset (Israel)

Noa's performance at Memorial Day events for Jewish and Palestinian families. (Tel Aviv, Israel)

http://noa-the-singer.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/darkness-falls-upon-land.html 

A Facebook group is calling for a boycott of the popular Israeli singer Noa.

More than 3,500 members have signed on to the group, which launched following her performance last week at an alternative Memorial Day event for bereaved Jewish and Palestinian families. Many of the members have called the singer insulting names playing off her name.

Noa, whose name is Achinoam Nini, says she is shocked by the negative reaction to her performance.

“I am just shocked by this stupid and ugly distortion,” Nini posted on her Facebook page. “I sang at an alternative ceremony, at which Jews and Arabs remember and cry together for their loved ones who were lost in the ongoing war between us.”

Nini called the ceremony “moving,” and marked by “unity, understanding, empathy, and especially peace.”

Combatants for Peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian group that originally was comprised of former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants, organized the alternative ceremony.

In a blog post following the start of the campaign against her, Nini wrote that “Israel is now going thorough one of the darkest periods of her short history. The amount of brainwashed people walking the streets here, the amount of RACISM and blind hatred, is simply mindboggling (and this goes for both the Jewish and the Arab population within Israel). I am but one of a long list of people and organizations with views similar to mine who have been bashed, banned, ostracized, ridiculed and marginalized, virtually OUTLAWED, since the present right-wing government has been in office.”

The singer called on Jews and Israelis to neither blindly criticize nor support everything that Israel does and to support organizations calling for peace. Her list of such organizations includes J Street, One Voice and the Abraham Fund.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/155525/pro-peace-israeli-singer-faces-boycott/#ixzz1tcC1us5R

MIVASSERET - It was cold enough on the eve of Memorial Day that at one point the muscles of my jaw cramped shut. It was cold enough and dark enough that something in the specifics of the pain and the paralysis made sense. It was a night to say nothing. To listen and to feel. To feel for one family. To take in anew the awe and the horror in an entire country struck mute by its own air-raid sirens.

The people of this town facing Jerusalem had gathered to recall the more than 100 loved ones Mivasseret has lost to war and terrorism. But they were there in particular to mourn its most recent tragedy. A soldier we killed by ourselves.

Everyone in town, it seemed, had known Hila Betzaleli, who as a youth had volunteered for ambulance duty with the Magen David Adam rescue service, later becoming a senior medic and a mentor for other medics in the army. They knew the kind of person that she was. The true heart of this country. The sort of person who explains why and how this country continues to exist. The sort of person this country was built on, and survives because of, and seldom if ever pays attention to. Until nights like this one, when it is already too late.

Near her base in the Jordan Valley, Palestinians knew that if relatives needed urgent medical attention, they could come to where Hila served. "In the last case," her mother told a local paper a few days after her death, "Hila phoned and told me that people had left a four year old girl, burned all over, at the gate, and disappeared. Hila wasn't the duty medic at the time, but she ran there, of course, and began working to save the girl's life. Human life was her holy of holies, it made no difference if it was the life of an Arab or of a Jew, whatever their politics."

We killed Hila. We killed her on Holocaust Memorial Day by not taking minimal responsibility for this life which took so much responsibility for others. This is the New Israel which privatized and profitized even the central ceremony of Memorial Day and Independence Day. This is the darkness and the coldness of this New Israel, incapable even of keeping warm lights in the air long enough to keep them from falling to earth and killing Hila Batzaleli

It was this New Israel of ours, the dark side of the start-up nation, shorn of its kid leather executive driving gloves and the thin permanent film of a smile. This is the darkness which takes the best that Israel has, its young people of warmth and goodwill and talent, and chews them up and spits them down like so many dishonored contracts.

That same day, down the mountain from here, Achinoam Nini, known internationally as Noa, another Israeli woman of rare love of country, was working to make this a more human, a better place for the people – the peoples - who live here.


She sang for the tens of thousands who gathered in Rabin Square to commemorate fallen soldiers. And she sang, as well, for the thousands of Arabs and Jews who took part in the Alternative Memorial Day service organized by the remarkable Combatants for Peace movement, founded by Israelis and Palestinians who once bore arms against each other.

Remarkable, and yet necessary and, in fact, thoroughly natural. We are all of us bereaved. We are all of us combatants. We are all of us victims and heroic and flawed and human and deserving of peace, of respect, of hope, of life. Of healing. Healing is what Hila Betzaleli's life was about. And Achininoam Nini's as well.

In the end, the efforts to boycott and ban and ostracize Achinoam Nini - the terrible slurs hurled at her in recent days by people who believe that to support Israel is to keep your hand cramped into a fist - have this to teach us: There is no weapon on earth more powerful and more dangerous than the human voice. When a human voice becomes a vessel in the service of change, a lever in the service of good, stand back.


That is why there is so much passion and, often, so little sanity, in efforts to silence it. Something is about to move. And when it does, someone will be threatened.

The hard left and the hard right want you to believe that the true heart of this country is the firebrand with the gun and the gospel and the jones for what is, in deed, someone else's land.

But it is Hila Betzaleli and Achinoam Nini who are the true heart of Israel. This is the heart which needs support and protection and recognition. This is the heart which saves rather than savages. This is the reason that there's still an Israel to love.

Jerusalén. (Efe) - Ahinoam Nini, más conocida fuera de Israel como Noa, es objeto de un boicot en Facebook por haber participado la semana pasada en un acto en recuerdo de víctimas árabes y judías del conflicto de Oriente Medio.


El boicot lo ha emprendido en la popular red social un grupo que le acusa de haber cantado por terroristas en el Día en memoria de los soldados israelíes y las víctimas del terrorismo (Yom Hazicaron, en hebreo), según informa la edición digital del diario Haaretz.


La cantante, según el diario, participó en un acto alternativo que, en lugar de recordar únicamente a las víctimas judías del conflicto palestino-israelí, también rendía homenaje a las víctimas árabes.


"Estoy sencillamente conmocionada por esta distorsión estúpida y desagradable", dice en su página de Facebook la cantante, conocida por sus posturas pacifistas y que en 2010 concursó en Eurovisión con la árabo-israelí Miri Awad con la canción There must be another way (Debe haber otro camino).


"En la ceremonia, judíos y árabes recordaron y lloraron juntos a sus seres queridos que han muerto en la continua guerra entre los dos pueblos", según la artista. "La ceremonia fue conmovedora (..) Fue un ejemplo de unidad, entendimiento, empatía y paz", prosigue la artista, que en un tono provocador alega que, si cualquier árabe es un terrorista, entonces, sí, ha cantado por los terroristas. No obstante, agrega: "Por la misma moneda, cualquier israelí es un asesino. ¡Vamos, que estaba en buena compañía!".


El grupo que exhorta al boicot de la cantante cuenta ya con unos 3.500 seguidores, y en la página se refieren a ella como 'Aji-zevel' y 'Aji-goal', una combinación de su nombre con los términos hebreos 'mierda' y 'repulsiva' respectivamente. También exhortan a una manifestación en el próximo lugar en el que actúe.


Ofer Pesenzon, director artístico de Noa, dijo al diario que lo que más le ha sorprendido es la intensidad, y no el estilo de la protesta. "Dios nos libre, este criticismo viene de la extrema derecha y de gente que no sabe de lo que habla", subrayó. El boicot del grupo israelí se suma al que la cantante debió afrontar hace tres años, esta vez de grupos pro palestinos, en un concierto en Barcelona con motivo de la Diada.


Las protestas la encabezaron entonces medio centenar de activistas de la Plataforma Aturem la Guerra, que protestaba el apoyo que ella había expresado meses antes a la ofensiva israelí en Gaza 'Plomo fundido', en la que murieron unos 1.400 palestinos y 13 israelíes.


En un improvisado discurso en el escenario, Noa lamentó la sangre vertida en Oriente Próximo, defendió el diálogo como solución al conflicto y terminó con una sentida declaración de que su sueño es estar presente y cantar en la firma del tratado de paz entre Israel y Palestina.

Noa's performance in Jerusalem (Israel)

Art is said to connect people, but that hasn't been proven often enough in the Middle East. Apart from a few flickers here and there, a steady continuity of artistic collaborations between Jews and Arabs has not been preserved.

The 2011 Speaking Arts Conference, which was held in Jerusalem last week, attempted to bring together dozens of Jewish and Palestinian artists involved in performing arts (music, theater and movement). The conference featured open performances, workshops and mater classes held in a variety of auditoriums across the cityThe music workshops were led by musician and composer Sameer Makhoul, and the opening concert at the Masie House Theater Center was presented by Achinoam Nini and Gili Dor, with Arab dancer Mona Mashi'l.

Nini and Dor also hosted a master class, in which they discussed their creation process throughout the years.

"It doesn't happen enough," says Nini, also known by her professional name Noa. "Not just in Israel but in the world too. It's very hard to hold such events despite the fact that we are artists and that such connections should hover over everything.

"But you know how it is – many times politics interferes in people's considerations, both each person's politics and the political opinions of the macro and micro groups, and then things stop."

Because people are afraid as well.

"Or concerned about their career, their status within their society. It can also reach personal safety and very radical places, especially in our region.

"I have experienced many projects in the world which could have been wonderful but were stopped following pressures and threats, fears on the other side that the umbilical cord they suck on all year will be cut off.

"Personally, I received threats years ago, when I started talking about politics and saying everything clearly and not politically correct. So my life was threatened and my house was guarded."

And you moved on.

"Right. That's not something that would make me stop. I performed in the Eurovision with (Israeli Arab singer) Mira Awad. Times have changed too. Once one would go to jail for meeting with Palestinians, and today the prime minister meets with Palestinian. Naturally, there are serious differences of opinion, but things can already be said differently.

"Let’s think positive, this conference is happening. We assembled a plan from a wide range of material, and yesterday we saw Mona for the first time. She's an extraordinary story. A 20-year-old medical student, a dancer and an excellent singer. It's a lot of fun."

Several days ago, Nini returned from India with Mira Awad, after the duo received a surprising invitation to perform in an economic conference in Goa.

"Words cannot describe just how amazing it was. People from all over the world, artists. It was very artistic. They found us there through the Internet and asked us to come. We had four concerts in Delhi, together and separately."

So you've opened a new channel.

"Absolutely, and I plan to continue. This year we've been both in India and in China. I told Mira that the next stop may be Antarctica. In the meantime, I have a whole month of Jerusalem."

Israeli Jewish singer Achinoam Nini (Noa)recently returned to Israel’s capital from performing in India (Goa and Dehli) with Israeli Arab singing partner Mira Awad. Last week Noa demonstrated Israel’s constant efforts to promote co-existence when she co-hosted the 2011 Speaking Arts Conference in Jerusalem, introducing dozens of Jewish and Palestinian Arab musicians, actors and dancers.

November 16 - 17 - Conference for Jewish and Arab performing arts professionals. Evening concerts on November 16 & 17 - open to the public! November 16 Achinoam Nini, November 17 Amal Murkus

Israeli singer Noa makes music and peace

By Avigayil Kadesh

“The Chinese love Israel more than any other people I have ever met,” says Ahinoam Nini, the international concert and recording artist known outside of Israel by her stage name, Noa. She posted daily blog entries about her experiences on tour in China with her Israeli-Arab singing partner, Mira Awad, in May.

The two women, who promote peaceful initiatives on and off stage, are well traveled but had never been to the Far East.

“The Chinese admire Jewish wisdom and perseverance, and see themselves as ‘the Jews of Asia.’ The message of peace Mira and I convey is agreeable to them, of course, but I must say, it is the music itself that moves them to tears, not the politics. We seem to evoke the deepest emotions in so many people here. It is a great honor.”

Noa is scheduled to perform June 9 and 11, during the Israel Festival, with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. She’ll depart for a concert tour of Spain in July.

‘I never perform a song I am not completely in love with’

An official United Nations goodwill ambassador, Noa has performed at venues ranging from the Vatican to Carnegie Hall to Oslo, entertaining the likes of former US President Bill Clinton, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the Pope. In 2009, she and Awad sang the Hebrew-Arabic-English ballad “There Must be Another Way” at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

“I’ve never had big, major hits,” Noa says. “I’m a performance artist who’s good at concerts, and I have a loyal, large fan base. I’m more interested in quality and originality than popularity.”

Though she is long established in Israeli culture – she performed at the 1995 Tel Aviv peace rally minutes before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated – her following is strongest in Spain, Italy and France, where Geffen Records aggressively marketed her albums toward the start of her nearly 20-year career.

This year, she’s released two new albums: “Noapolis,” a sampling of Neapolitan songs performed with her longtime musical director-guitarist, Gil Dor, Zohar Fresco and Italy’s Solis String Quartet; and “Eretz Shir: The Israeli Songbook,” a collection of classic Hebrew songs recorded with Dor to the accompaniment of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

“If you notice, I do not make albums at whirlwind pace, to say the least,” Noa says in flawless English, having lived in New York for most of her childhood. “I take my time, and will never perform a song I am not completely in love with.”

Last spring, she embarked on a multi-city North American concert tour just two months after giving birth to her third child, whom she brought along. She and her husband, physician Asher Barak, also have 10- and seven-year-old children they are raising in a beachfront kibbutz house. “I take my kids on tour often, and when I don't I suffer quite a lot,” she says.

Return to Israel launches a career

Born in 1969 to Israeli-Yeminite parents, Noa’s parents left Tel Aviv for the Bronx when she was a preschooler. They never melted into the American pot. “We were Israeli in our home, our food, our mentality and in high school I started looking for my own identity through understanding more about where I came from,” she says.

She met Barak, then a medical student, during a teenage trip back home, and informed her parents that she wasn’t returning to New York – not even to finish high school. So at 16, she entered a Jerusalem boarding school, concentrating on her interest in musical performance. She served in the Israel Defense Forces’ entertainment corps for two years and then enrolled in the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon.

It was here that she met Dor, who started out as her teacher. And Dor, in turn, introduced her to American jazz great Pat Metheny, “one of the most brilliant musicians and wonderful people I have ever met.”

Metheny was so impressed with Noa and Dor’s performance at an Israeli jazz festival that he brought them to the attention of Geffen music executives.

“There is no end to how much [Pat] has contributed to my career and my life,” says Noa, cognizant of the fact that she may not have attracted his attention had she stayed in New York.

What she did pick up in the Big Apple was a love of English literature and poetry. Some of the songs she’s written and recorded put Hebrew poetry to music, while others are created in her head in English. In 1995, Noa composed “Beautiful That Way,” the theme song for the Oscar-winning film “Life is Beautiful.” It was later translated into 10 languages.

Twin passions for parenting and peace

It would be hard to say which focus occupies more of Noa’s consciousness: family or furthering peace. She is close with her parents, who eventually followed her back to Israel.

“In the end, there’s nothing in the same hemisphere as family,” she says, admitting that balancing career and child-rearing is no easy task.

“I get a lot of help and support from my wonderful husband and my parents, who are just amazing,” she says. “I have made many compromises, but it’s worth it. As a song I once wrote goes, ‘Life is just a balancing act,’ and I am doing my best. I consider myself very, very lucky to have such a beautiful family.”

At the same time, she is constantly looking for ways to actualize the famous Edmund Burke quotation, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

“I believe in that with all my heart,” says Noa. “And I believe in peace. I am a singer and have the privilege of holding a key to many people's hearts. When those hearts are opened, I do my part: Beyond entertaining, I supply food for thought, I try to inspire and evoke dialogue, contemplation and emotion.

“Music has the power of elevating us to a higher level, where we can find common emotional ground. It is there that we see how useless all the hatred and violence are -- and what beautiful doors we can open with communication and compassion.”

Noa's concert in Tel Aviv (Israel)

Noa's benefit concert in Milano (Italy)

Noa e Mira Awad chiudono la conferenza mondiale Science for Peace 2011 con un concerto speciale dedicato alla pace che si terrà a Milano presso l’Aula Magna Università Bocconi il prossimo venerdì 19 novembre alle ore 21.00. Le due cantanti hanno già collaborato insieme per portare la pace nel mondo, Achinoam Nini, 39 anni, conosciuta più semplicemente come Noa e la cantante e attrice araba israeliana Mira Awad, 33 anni si esibiranno insieme, un evento emozionante e gratuito, che la Fondazione Veronesi vuole offrire a tutti coloro che sostengono gli obiettivi di Science for Peace.

Noa's Benefit concert in Tel Aviv (Israel)

Achinoam Nini (Noa) is an Israeli icon: a singer, composer and lyricist of world stature who is as passionate and principled as she is talented. Her musical achievements are the stuff of legend. She has sung for the Pope, performed with the Israeli Philharmonic and the Solis String Quartet, at the Eurovision song contest together with Mira Awad, with Sting and with Stevie Wonder, at Carnegie Hall and at a Sacred Music Festival in Fez … where not? On October 17, ESRA supporters will have a chance to hear her too, as she performs in a not-to-be-missed benefit concert at the Tel Aviv Opera House.

Today, Nini lives in Israel in a house by the sea filled with color, bright, primitive paintings, toys and many books – a contrast to her early life, which was spent overseas. The ethnic influences on her life and style are so varied that it's easy to understand why Nini describes her childhood as "quite a confusing one, though happy, actually." Born to Israeli parents of Yemenite origin who moved to the US when she was two, she grew up always feeling a little different. The other students at the yeshiva school she attended in New York were mainly of Ashkenazi origin, and – another dichotomy – her family was traditional, but not religious. After school, she played with the Puerto Rican and African-American kids in the neighborhood. "It's no wonder" she says with that familiar wide smile, that "I had to deal with an identity crisis."

Precocious in music, Nini found an outlet in song-writing and singing. At the age of seven, she joined the school choir led by Avshalom Katz, who was to prove one of the great influences on her life. Katz not only taught his choir wonderful songs, but also "inspired us to rise to the occasion of music." Moreover, he took Nini's talent seriously, and when she was 12, he arranged for her to record her compositions.

But then, life took another tangent. On a hiking trip on a visit to Israel, Nini fell in love. She was 16; he was 21. She left school and followed him to Israel, because she believed then, as she does now, that "love is the greatest driving force in the world." Many parents would have had a fit, but hers were Zionists who had always intended to return to Israel, and she believes, "in some ways, they were proud that I managed to do what they couldn't at the time."

Nini certainly has never had cause to regret her decision (though, she admits, she might not be so willing herself to let her own children leave school and run off to another country.) Today, she and her former boyfriend, who is now her husband, Dr. Asher Barak, have three children, Ayehli, Enea and Yum.

After finishing high school at a boarding school in Jerusalem, Nini served in an IDF military entertainment unit. She had planned to study music at Julliard, but that would have meant leaving her boyfriend, so she attended the Rimon School of Music instead, majoring in composition and vocal training. One of her teachers was Gil Dor, the greatest musical influence on her life. Their success took off after they gave a collaborative teacher-student performance in Tel Aviv which resulted in a recording deal with Geffen Records. "We were on our way," she says. The collaboration has lasted 20 years.

Nini's style is not easy to categorize. Her beautiful mellow voice lends itself to ballads, to jazz, blues, Rhythm & Blues and to ethnic and classical influences. Among the singer-composers who have influenced her songs are the great talents of the sixties, such as Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen, who sing, as she does, "from the gut." In Hebrew, a major influence has been Leah Goldberg, whose songs she has recorded.

It's been noted that she has sometimes been perceived as more successful overseas than at home. To Nini, the main reason is that Israel has a smaller population, and she is not the kind of singer who appeals to the masses. "If you're living for art, you're appreciated by fewer people. I couldn't fill a stadium and I wouldn’t want to." Also, "my natural multiculturalism is embraced by Europeans, but here, people don't really know how to swallow how I fuse languages. It doesn't fit into the consensus." Nevertheless, songs like 'Bo'i Kallah' are Hebrew classics.

Overseas, she is a genuine star. One of the highlights of her career was her performance of 'Ave Maria' before Pope John Paul II, a live audience of 100,000 and a television audience of millions. The engagement came about through a fortuitous piece of luck.

"I had recorded a version of 'Ave Maria' with original lyrics for my album 'Noa' as a prayer for peace. The lyrics are ecumenical, in fact, iconoclastic, although most people missed that. One of the organizers of a concert which was being planned at the Vatican in honor of the Year of the Family happened to come across one of my albums and thought the cover photo of me was interesting. He turned it over and saw that I had recorded 'Ave Maria,' so he listened to it and liked it. That concert established me as a person who had something to say that was universal."

Nini met the Pope not just once, but several times – ("I think he liked me.") She certainly was taken by him. "He spoke highly of Israel in such an openminded way. He was just what a religious leader should be. He really believed that the breaking of barriers in religion would bring peace."

Another song that resonated internationally was the theme from the movie 'Life is Beautiful,' whose English lyrics she wrote. Says Nini, "I'm good with things that have a deeper meaning. I just can't do a pop song without a higher level of dealing with life."

That extends to other things she believes in, such as peace and co-existence. Nini, who sang at the fateful rally in 1995 minutes before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, has often collaborated with Arab and Palestinian artists and has worked on many occasions with the Peres Center for Peace. Her dedication has been recognized by the award of many international prizes, including the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Gemona Seminar prize for artistic excellence and The Italian Stella de la Republica award. She has also been appointed Good Will ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. "I have a sense of injustice," she says. "That’s why I'm here."

It has sometimes led to controversy. During the Gaza war in 2009, she felt that "things were starting to get distorted. I started seeing a demonization of Israel in every sense and I felt that a sense of balance was needed." She wrote an open letter urging Israel to get rid of Hamas, which was misinterpreted by some Palestinians as an attack on innocent civilians. In her response, she wrote, "I am sorry for every innocent life lost on both sides of the fence… I call on all people to listen to all sides with an open heart free from prejudice… Let's show the beauty of all cultures, the wisdom of all religions, and the human, compassionate face of mankind."

A passionate, courageous person who believes strongly in equality and the possibility of peace, she denies that she is in any way naïve. "On the contrary, those who do nothing are the naïve ones." And she is cautiously optimistic. "There has been progress," she maintains.

So, life is beautiful? She smiles as she gets up to feed her baby daughter. "Life is beautiful."

ESRA volunteers proved, once again, that as a team they can pull off a major event successfully and make it look so very easy.

On October 17, ESRA cooked up a storm. The ingredients were all there: a gala evening with internationally acclaimed singer Achinoam Nini always promised to be special; Gil Dor’s guitar would delight; the Israel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ilan Mochiach would add depth and drama; and Haim Yavin, Mr. News himself, would guide us through the evening with clarity and panache.

So what made this event special? Quite simply it was the “ESRA” component. It all started outside the magnificent Opera House as people greeted one another as they entered and mingled in the foyer as if going to some class reunion. There was an air of excitement and anticipation as people saw familiar faces. Everyone knew someone and the air buzzed with warmth and belongingness. As the lights dimmed we were taken on a guided journey through a potted history of ESRA, its achievements and projects. A short, concise film was screened which illustrated some of the ways in which ESRA makes a difference in the community at large. Even the film itself was a credit to the volunteers who made it and showed us all that Esravision has “come of age”. Nina Zuck, ESRA’s co-chair, appealed to the audience to continue supporting ESRA’s work – as if we needed convincing! Her charm and modest words were capped by the sweet voices and performance of the Hefzibah choir. These young Ethiopian girls, who participate in our choir in Netanya and are led by Eva De Mayo and Yevgeny Mishkov, caused the 1600 people in the audience to marvel at their achievements after such a short time together. I was sitting near their parents who could be heard 'kvelling' as their daughters sang on stage at the Israel Opera House. If that wasn’t enough, they later sang with Achinoam Nini, who was gracious in sharing stage and song, and even comforted one of the girls after she slipped and fell.

The main program was great. Achinoam Nini and Gil Dor, supported by the Israel Chamber Orchestra, selected a repertoire with something for everyone as she sang some of her better known songs (Bo’i Kala and Keren Or), a taste of Italy (Santa Lucia), a touch of opera (Rossini), jazz (My Funny Valentine) and some of her personal favorites from different periods of her life. Her stories of her grandmother, mother and voice teachers, and of her deep love and appreciation of them, revealed the depth of her humaneness and spirituality.

She concluded her performance with Beautiful Life. How apt for such a wonderful, impressive and entertaining evening.

Congratulations to the organizing committee who, yet again, have set new and higher standards for our ESRA events.

Noa's concert at the Dolomiti (Italy)

Noa's concert in Haifa (Israel)

Dr. Michael Dan, , humanitarian, peace activist and philanthropist, received the University of Haifaís highest accolade, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa at a ìPartners for Peaceî Tribute Dinner at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto.

[More photos below]

The degree was conferred in recognition of Dr. Danís deep commitment to human rights, the advancement of mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence in the Middle East; his philanthropic activities in Canada and Israel, and his friendship and support for the University of Haifa. A major benefactor of the University of Haifa and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Michael is a member of the Board of Directors of Canadian Friends of Haifa University.

Dr. Dan comes from a very diverse background that includes neurosurgery, biotechnology, and organic farming. Currently, Michael is working with Canadaís First Nations to develop hydroelectric power and other sustainable energy projects.

The ìPartners for Peaceî Dinner, orchestrated and hosted by Canadian Friends of Haifa University, attracted more than 500 guests to pay tribute to Dr. Michael Dan. Amongst them were Chairman of the University of Haifa Board of Governors Mr. Leon H. Charney, Chairman of the Universityís Executive Committee Dr. Yossi Bachar and Vice President for External Affairs Mr. Amos Gaver. President of the University of Haifa, Prof. Aaron Ben-Zeíev and Rector Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi conferred the honorary degree. Dinner Co-Chairs, Harold Niman and Susan Wowk, led the fundraising campaign, together with Canadian Friends of Haifa University President, Dr. Karen Mock; and board members, Elham Farah and Marvin Sadowski.

Edward Greenspan, Q.C. was the emcee for the evening and Prof. Irwin Cotler was the Honorary Dinner Chair. David Buchbinder and ensemble played during dinner and the evening ended with a spectacular North American dÈbut performance by Israelís leading international concert and recording artist Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Mira Anwar Awad, the Jewish-Arab singing duo who represented Israel in this yearís Eurovision Song Contest.

Proceeds from the event are to support the University of Haifaís recently established ìPeace and Conflict Management Studies programî, which will nurture a new generation of leaders with the ability to promote more effective and peaceful approaches to conflict resolution.

Photos by Jo-Anne McArthur

Noa performs at Diada de l'Onze de Setembre, Barcelona (Spain)

Noa's concert in Lourdes (France)

Noa's concert in Lourdes, France August 14th(with Mira Awad)