A scene from last year’s Mekudeshet Festival at the Tower of David Museum. (Jpost.com)
As a city that is central to the world’s three great Abrahamic faiths, at the epicentre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has known conflict on and off for thousands of years, and is divided between East and West; it’s easy to forget that Jerusalem is a living, breathing city, with modern urban life and a rich blend of people, art, food and cultural activity. It is a complex society that is not easy to fully grasp, by outsiders and Jerusalemites themselves, and is a city with many overlapping layers – east and west, Arab and Jewish, religious and secular. But one of the by-products of the complex mix is the special space that exists within the tension and between the division lines where culture, art, and creativity can emerge on a deep and very unique level. Because of its distinctive combination, there are cultural activities and events in Jerusalem that aren’t the same, or even possible, anywhere else.
This is the context behind a unique month-long festival in Jerusalem that recently took place called Mekudeshet. In Hebrew, the word Mekudeshet means “sanctified,” or “sacred.” The cultural festival is organized by the Jerusalem Season of Culture organization and is in its eighth year. The festival is a series of very unique and diverse performances, art installations, musical concerts, and events, that take place throughout the city, with the underlying theme to highlight the diversity and unique energy of the city,and it’s sacred status, not only to its own diverse inhabitants but to the entire world.
Despite Jerusalem’s divisions and tensions, one thing that almost everyone who lives there agrees on is that it is a special and unique place, like no other city in the world. The organizers of Mekudeshet state that the festival aims to reflect the unique and sacred nature of Jerusalem and be a homage to the city and its residents by featuring art and performances that transcend cultural boundaries and reflect shared and pluralistic values. It is inspired by a vision of the unifying power of art and strives to build a sense of connection between both the diverse populations within Jerusalem and between Jerusalem with the world.
Mark Eliyahu and Maqam Ensemble (mekudeshet.com)
For example, one of the venues for several Mekudeshet concerts was the Jerusalem YMCA complex. A city landmark, the Jerusalem YMCA is known for attracting and benefiting members of all the different communities in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem YMCA was originally established during the Ottoman Empire, was shut down during WWI, only to be reopened under the British Mandate on a property purchased from the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, across the street from the famous King David Hotel. With its iconic observation tower, and beautiful domes and arches within the complex, it has symbolic architectural elements and inscriptions that honour the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities in the city. It also hosts many educational and cultural events, including an annual Christmas tree lighting. During Mekudeshet, there was a concert called Living Water, which featured four female singers from four Mediterranean coastal countries, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Israel. The accomplished soloists performed individually in Greek, Turkish, Italian, Hebrew and Arabic (The Israeli singer was born in Egypt to Muslim parents) and collaboratively together to perform a beautiful and harmonious mixture of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern folk and traditional music.
Work in progress – HaMiffal (via @ibogalito on Instagram)
Another unique Jerusalem venue for a Mekudeshet event called the Port-JLM, which was held in an old building converted into an artist collective, called Ha-Miffal, “the factory” in Hebrew. The building “Ha-Miffal” is located in the center of Jerusalem and was an abandoned Ottoman-era 19th-century house that was in disrepair and lived in by squatters for decades. Less than ten years ago, a group of art students from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem started using the building as an art space and collective workshop. The artists have since received permission from the city and have obtained funding to use “Ha-Miffal” as a public space and art collective, with studios, a café/bar, and a space that hosts art and culture performances. The building feels like it is tucked away in a hidden part of the city, veiled behind two luxury hotels, with a courtyard containing beautiful Moroccan style fountains and gardens that are part of an adjacent North African Jewish centre.
The event held in Ha-Miffal, Port – JLM, as previously mentioned, aimed to turn the Ha-Miffal into a port “from which to set sail and to meet inspiring people from local and distant points on the map.” They placed a large container in the courtyard which contained a high-resolution video screen inside that allowed for virtual meetings with other individuals across the globe in cities like Amman, Jordan, Nairobi, Kenya, Kabul, Afghanistan, and more. Anyone could sign up and enter the container and then have a meeting with a partner individual or group in those cities. In the evening, inside the building, there was a DJ party with house music, and next to the dance floor was another large video screen which showed a live feed of a dance floor in Nairobi. The same music was played in Nairobi so both groups could dance together to the same DJ and beats. There were even interactions and communications, (such as waving and saying hello over the DJ’s microphone), between the groups, which were separated by a video screen, two continents, and thousands of kilometres via the Red Sea and great Syria-Africa rift. The Port and its virtual meetings with the foreign participants were described as “an open invitation to learn about them and to learn about ourselves from them, and an additional bonus—you don’t need a passport for this journey.”
Another incredible event and concert took place inside the Old City of Jerusalem, inside the famous Jerusalem Citadel, also known as the Tower of David. The name “David’s Tower” traces its roots to the Byzantine era when Byzantine Christians (mistakenly) believed it to be the site of King David’s palace, based on an erroneous interpretation of the writings of the Roman Historian Josephus. The Jerusalem Citadel is a complex that contains ancient fortifications and a medieval fortress that has archaeological remnants that span civilizations and historical eras, including the Hasmoneans, the Herodian era, the Byzantines, Mamluks, and Ottomans. When the British captured Jerusalem during WWI from the Ottoman Turks, General Allenby famously proclaimed victory from the gates of the Citadel. The Citadel now contains a Museum and with its enormous inner courtyards, ancient walls, towers and minarets, can host spectacular events.
Fire Keepers at Mekudeshet. (mekudeshet.com)
Inside the Citadel was a concert called the Fire Keepers, which created the feeling of a large tribal camp complete with a fire and music. The audience could sit throughout the open-air inner courtyard with its many levels of the Citadel, surrounded by the outer walls and ramparts, ancient stairs and arches, and under the canopy of stars. All of this made for an incredible environment and viewing experience. The music itself was the crowning piece in the evening. There was a Turkish psychedelic rock band, known as Baba Zula, which seemed fitting given the Citadel’s storied past during the Ottoman Empire. A group from Israel called the Piyut Ensemble of Ben Zvi Institute (in Jerusalem), sang North African style Jewish prayer music in a style of ritualistic trance-like music. (“Piyut” or “Piyutim” are Jewish prayers sung as melodies during Synagogue services and are a particularly beautiful part of Sephardic prayer services.) In addition, an Israeli electronic techno band called Red Axes partnered with an ensemble band from the Ivory Coast called Yakomin. Combined, and with African drums supplied by Yakomim, they made an incredibly rhythmic and energizing sound.
The concert had a mystical feel to it. Dancing, a fire pit, and the oriental patterns and designs projected onto the ancient walls as part of a light show gave it an unmistakably positive vibe that ensued from the eclectic mix of traditional and boisterous musical harmonies. All in all, an experience that is not common in the normally more conservative and buttoned up Old City of Jerusalem. The crowd contained a mix of young hipster Israelis, students, middle and upper class (and religious) Israelis from the Jerusalem elite, along with young Palestinians from East Jerusalem. The staff of the Jerusalem Season of Culture purposely draws in Palestinians in an effort to bridge and transcend the divides of the city, an admittedly difficult and complicated task.
The Mekudeshet included dozens of other unique, off-beat and creative concerts and events, and installations in Jerusalem, such as: a concert by a choir held in the Jerusalem forest in Ein Kerem where the audience wore blindfolds; art installations in various rooftops of Jerusalem buildings; guided journeys throughout different neighbourhoods of East and West Jerusalem, narrated in Arabic, Hebrew, and English; and many more.
Kulna at Mitchell Gardens (via rjstreets.com)
The final event of the festival was a concert called Kulna, which in Arabic means “all of us.” (Similar to the Hebrew word for all of us, Kulanu) The concert was located in the Mitchel Garden outside the ancient outer walls of the Old City, on the seam line between East and West Jerusalem. The huge outdoor concert featured many performances by different artists, with a musical backdrop provided by the Jerusalem Orchestra East and West, which is comprised of young Jewish and Arab classical musicians. The concert featured performances by both Arab and Jewish artists, including some very well-known Israeli singers such as Sarit Hadad, a very successful and respected Israeli solo artist who comes from Jewish-Iraqi roots, and Ravid Khalani, lead singer of the Israeli group Yemen Blues, who comes from Jewish Yemenite roots. There were performances from Palestinian rappers Muhammed Mugrabi and Muzi Raps, who are from East Jerusalem. There was David Menachem, a Jewish Rabbi who sings classical Arabic music, including songs from the famous Egyptian female singer Um Khathoum. And at the end, a dance party with a Jewish Mizrahi DJ named Ramzi, playing Arab music set to techno beats. The concert was very well attended and received, with a large mixed audience from both the Jewish and Arab communities in Jerusalem, something that does not happen so often.
It goes without saying that a festival such as Mekudeshet with its ambitiously idealistic aspirations of transcending and transforming boundaries in Jerusalem can be described as fantastical or dreaming, but in many ways that was the point. As a city that is sacred to many but bound with tensions and divisions, such whimsical, quirky, and cultural spirit is very much a local “Jerusalem thing”. The idea of the festival was to see Jerusalem as it is, but from a different angle, and in doing so, to see also what it could be.
In all, the Kulna concert, and the Mekudeshet could be summarized by a statement made by the conductor of the Jerusalem Orchestra East West during the Kulna concert. “This is what the Middle East should sound like on any given night.”
This is the power, the potential, that is Jerusalem.
