The Zimriya at Fifty

Some ten countries came to the first Zimriya festivals in 1952 and 1955, and later this grew to 15. One thousand guests from 11 countries attended the 16th Zimriya in 1992, and then settled down to about 500 guest visitors, again from eleven countries, at the 19th Zimriya in 2001, due to the unsettled security situation. The age of participants ranged from 15 to 65. As for professions, they were a mixed bag of tailors and shopkeepers, students and cantors, and many more. This year, the Zimriya celebrated its 50th year of existence.

The Zimriya came into being in 1952 thanks to the untiring efforts of Aaron Zvi Propes (1904-1978). The Latvian-born Propes, behind the unassuming façade of a somewhat blunt bureaucrat, was a man of vision. Not a musician himself, he was a real music lover - a rare combination of patriotism in the naïve, idealistic, non-political sense of the word, and down-to-earth practicality. His aim was to put Israel on the international map of large-scale musical events on the highest possible level in order to earn for the country worldwide prestige, such as is enjoyed by the most celebrated music festivals elsewhere. It was the first of three international musical enterprises that he founded and directed - the others were the Israel Festival and the Israel International Harp contest.

Propes's opening message in the 1952 Choir Festival programme brochure seems florid and exaggerated today. But it reflects something of the elation and enthusiasm that brought the first Zimriya to life:

"The day will come when boys and girls of the people of Israel, scattered and dispersed, will meet in the mountains of liberated Judea and Jerusalem. From all corners of the world they will go up to Zion to sing together their song of longing and great love for this soil. ...A nation lives by its song; its sons sing as they go to war, and they sing as they fall and rise. With a song on its lips a nation builds and shapes its future. Thus the dream came true... A people with as profound and old a culture as ours is duty bound to make great efforts even in difficult times, to develop, increase and enhance the cultural values sacred to the nation. If such efforts prove successful, it is indeed a feast of joy that even a small and poor nation may celebrate."

Entitled originally "Jewish World Choir Festival," the Zimriya was designed at first as a convention of exclusively Jewish choirs. It was intended "to strengthen the ties between the Hebrew youth of the Diaspora and of Israel by means of the Hebrew song." Above all, it was meant to realize a revival of the still surviving Jewish music culture after the Holocaust. But after the second Zimriya, in 1955, Propes suggested extending the scope of the Zimriya to include non-Jewish choirs. His idea was to widen its cultural horizons, and also to increase local colour from many countries. The first non-Jewish choir came to the third Zimriya in 1958 from France. The term "Jewish" was dropped from the fourth Zimriya's title in 1961. Now it is called "World Assembly of Choirs in Israel," a truly international musical event.

The first Zimriya's opening concerts on August 6, 1952, appropriately took place in Jerusalem, the country's capital, but then still without a concert hall. They were held at two of the city's largest halls - the now defunct Edison and Zion Cinemas. The opening concert started with Israeli composer Haim Alexander's choral piece "I will Gather you from the People," the winner of the first prize in a competition held at the Zimriya. While the work then sounded daringly modern, its repeat performances at recent Zimriya events now makes an almost romantic impression and evokes nostalgic feelings. The commissioning of new choral works from leading Israeli composers, such as Yeheskel Braun, Josef Tal and Tsvi Avni, for Zimriya openings has since become an established custom.

The second Zimriya in 1955, opened in Haifa, though it is neither the country's capital nor its main cultural centre - but its major port. At that time overseas travel still was mainly by ship. It was therefore, the most convenient spot for the first concert, immediately upon arrival of the singers.

In the Zimriya's first years, until the 1970s, its programmes were designed according to a unique model: each choir appeared on the stage in turn and presented some Israeli or Jewish songs, as had been stipulated by the organizers, as well as songs from its own country. This recipe caused an enormous versatility of performance styles, music traditions and cultures. Even Israeli songs often sounded quite different from their well-known, frequently stereotyped local versions when presented in the different, sometimes more original arrangements of a Jewish, but foreign choir. The polish and accuracy of some of these overseas choirs in several Israeli songs could well serve as a model for many Israeli choirs that tended to take these songs for granted.

Remarkable no less than these overseas Jewish choirs' devotion to Israeli songs, however, was another characteristic phenomenon. When performing songs from their countries of origin, their renditions suddenly became more lively, animated, fresh and natural as though with these songs they felt really at home, and were not merely singing by rote. The presentations of their own songs also evoked the admiration of the Israeli host choirs. Their initially patronizing attitude toward these guests from the Diaspora gradually changed. It gave way to the recognition that Diaspora Jews were, in fact, linked inextricably and culturally to their countries of origin, and that for Israelis there was much to be learned from them. This encounter of many vastly different vocal cultures, has been one of the Zimriya's most precious characteristics.

The choirs' performing of pieces from their own repertoires, each in its turn, has now become confined to so-called "Choir to Choirs" concerts. In these, the audience consists almost exclusively of other choirs' members. Although officially open to the general public, these concerts are now unadvertised. Regrettably, they have become a marginal, almost closed affair of the Zimriya, instead of its major event as it used to be in the past. The Zimriya's original idea of pluralist encounter of diverse vocal cultures has been superseded by the model of the "Europa Cantat," imported in the 1970s. Its main feature is a system of workshops for the instruction of songs and vocal works of various kinds, directed by local musicians such as Stanley Sperber, Maya Shavit, Leonti Wolf, and Gary Bertini and, from abroad, Frieder Bernius from Germany and Erkki Pohjola from Finland, among others.

A rather formal opening and closing concert has become a substitute for the heart-warming spontaneity and enthusiasm of the Zimriya opening in previous years. Conventional works from the standard choral repertoire, not particularly related to the character and idea of the Zimriya, as well as commissioned works by Israeli composers, have transformed these events into commonplace choral concerts. This is an unfortunate development, dictated by the current trends of the time, and diluting the original Zimriya spirit. Hopefully, it may disappear again, together with those passing fashions.

Among the workshops, the most significant ones were those that taught Israeli songs and choral compositions to the foreign participants. Their natural curiosity for the vocal culture of this country, and their wish to enrich their own repertoire by these new pieces, thus became piqued. Results were sometimes paradoxical. For many Israeli choirs, for instance, there was much to be learned from a Korean girls choirs' refined and delicate rendition of well-known Israeli songs that are commonly delivered here in a much more robust manner.

Some conductors well understood that such an international choral event can be a unique opportunity for mutual cultural enrichment by instructing participants from other countries in the less well-known, yet deserving music of their own country. Thus a British conductor taught fascinating English pieces to choirs from Germany, Poland and Israel, and a Hungarian conductor accomplished inspired renditions of little-known Hungarian works with choirs from Korea and Israel. A Russian-born Israeli conductor successfully instructed German and Slovenian choirs in the authentic Russian choral style.

Many of the Jewish choirs, mainly synagogal or congregational, deserve appreciation, not so much for their musical capacities as for their social function - the encouragement of Jewish consciousness in their often remote locations of the Diaspora. Their enthusiasm (despite a tendency toward pathos and melodrama) were often moving. Several of these choirs are significantly active factors in maintaining the Jewish communities in their countries. Israeli songs have created for them a living and direct link with Israel, more than many routine official informational activities. Many choirs that were originally founded especially for the purpose of participating in the Zimriya, did not disband after it was over, but continued to exist for their own sake, and kept functioning as an active element within their communities. Many participants who had been alienated from Judaism became infected with a sincere interest in Israel during their Zimriya visit. Already after the second Zimriya, in 1955, Propes emphasized in his report: "There can be no doubt that the participants of the Zimriya return to their homes as ambassadors of our country, full of love for Israel, with much understanding for our problems." And he proceeds to insist that "it is inconceivable that an undertaking like the Zimriya should not get moral and financial support from the national and Zionist institutions." One would think that a portion of the budgets of the government, the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization should allocate the required funding for this important undertaking. This, however, is not the case.

Fifty years later, Esther Herlitz, the director of the Zimriya since 1983, points out that the number of Jewish choirs in the world is diminishing. Many of them stopped coming simply because they do not exist anymore. On the other hand, the interest of non-Jewish choirs in the Zimriya is growing worldwide. The relevant Israeli institutions, however, are not doing enough to satisfy this growing interest in foreign choirs in the Israeli choral repertoire, according to Herlitz, a former Israeli ambassador to Denmark and member of the Knesset.

One of her endearing qualities is her refreshing and altogether undiplomatic outspokenness. She sharply criticizes the fact that the Zimriya, a significant means for strengthening cultural relations between communities of the Diaspora and Israel, runs the risk of getting lost due to this perceived indifference on the part of the national institutions. She sadly adds that non-Jewish choirs abroad are subsidized by their governmental or municipal authorities for their participation in the Zimriya. Meanwhile, the 20th Zimriya is now in its planning stages for 2004, under the motto "The singing does not stop." One hopes that indeed it will not.