On Sunday, the 23rd of April we had a visit from the London Jewish Male Choir. Jillian Brahams has written up the brilliant event below.
NORWICH SYNAGOGUE were really fortunate that Maureen and Barry Leveton organised the above choir to make the long journey from London so that we could hear them sing from a varied repertoire. The 19 strong choir included their energetic and charismatic director, Joseph Finlay, and their soloist, Yoav Oved. It was wonderful to see the synagogue filled to overflowing with the audience including Norwich dignitaries as well as our friends from the wider community. There were old and new settings of Shabbat liturgy from the Torah service to Havdalah. A familiar tune for L’cha Dodo in its entirety, beautifully sung. Also a wonderful arrangement of Sim Shalom which had us all joining in the chorus. For me there were new pieces – Onward Jewish Legion which dates from the First World War, and had been sung Jewish volunteers from Britain , the US and Russia using all three languages: Yiddish, English and Hebrew. Joseph Finlay introduced us to a cheeky music hall song called ‘Channa from Havana’ from the same genre as ‘Bei Mir Bist Du Shein’. Yoav Oled who is a cantorial singer sang beautiful traditional Yemenite songs introducing us to new rhythms and a new/old instrument made up of an oilcan and thimbles. Mesmeric. He the sang the traditional lullaby ‘Rozhinkes mit Mandeln’. So moving especially for those of us brought up with Yiddish speaking grandparents.
And finally on the eve of Yom Ha’atzmaut we rose to sing Hatikvah to celebrate Israel @75. This was a fitting conclusion to a memorable occasion in our synagogue. (Just a note to remind the community that the words of Hatikvah were written by Naftali Hertz Imber who is a forebear of Ethel Imber Litman. She is a former president of this synagogue.)