Music unites over all divisions: Playing the harp on the streets of Europe

• Author: SHALEV BEN YAAKOV
• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Being that Austria is the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, I had always had a basic animosity and disdain for this country. For me, Austria and Bavaria always symbolized the epitome of hatred for my people Israel – Nazism began in these regions.

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A few months ago, I met a good friend in Jerusalem. He encouraged me to continue playing music all around the world. He said, "Music is the only way to open up everyone's heart. We have to open up our hearts in the whole world! How many Amalekites are there? What, everyone hates Israel? Everyone is Amalek? They are just a few! So the rest of the world – we have to find a way (to bring them to HaShem), and it seems to me that what you are doing, flying all around the world and playing music – is the best way, is the ONLY way!"

I think this is the reason I do it. We live on the same globe with these people, and with the advent of the Internet, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, electronic mail, and the vast improvement in transportation – whether we like it or not, the world has become, in some ways, one big neighborhood. Or we continue to kill each other or we find a way to live with each other. I don't think that we can afford the luxury of imagining that there is no world out there – that the gentiles don't exist. I don't say that EVERYONE must do what I do – basically, the people of Israel are returning home, so we must build OUR country. The emphasis must be on STAYING HOME, and on rebuilding our unique national life again, but for those who have a way to touch the nations of the world, and melt their prejudice toward us, it may be an obligation to do so. I remember hearing Rav Shlomo Carlebach, when asked how he could perform in Germany after the Holocaust, answer, "In a world where people can't change – I have no reason to be in it."

Even on the plane – on the way to Vienna – I mentioned to a fellow Israeli who sat next to me, how hard it was for me to go to Austria knowing that Hitler organized his movement there. He replied, "I understand you, but in general, I think that the people of the world share more in common then what divides them."

I'll just say a little about myself for the reader. I grew up in New York to a basically Irish Catholic family. After attending the bar mitzvah of a close friend, and being exposed to the horrors of the Holocaust by my mother – many questions began to occupy me. I was only 12. Later on, in college, I began to seriously learn about Judaism and to study Hebrew. After college, I visited Israel and decided to stay. In 1984 I moved to Jerusalem, entered Machon Meir (a Torah academy), and converted. In early 1986, upon visiting my parents in New York, I learned something I had always suspected – that there were Jews in my father's family. Specifically, they were in my father's father's family, and their name was Jacobson or Jacobs.

AFTER THE passing of Rav Shlomo Carlebach in 1995, I began singing songs and telling stories all around...