As Henry Ford put it, coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. Such was the case with the joint concert-project in Krakow.
A few months ago a representative of the Shomer program from Belarus wrote to TSKŻ Kraków and proposed a collective initiative involving a concert of the Shalom band from Belarus, for the Jewish community in Kraków.
Some time, work and involvement later, there we have it – after a few months, one October evening we find ourselves in the beautiful Tempel synagogue, available to us thanks to the Jewish Community of Kraków. Credit is also due to one other person and here I will quote the words of Lou Vickery. “Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more. Itzchak Horowitz, a member of the Jewish community in Kraków since several years, helped not only with the finance and logistics but did something more than that, he helped the idea become a reality, allowed the event to even take place. Therefore TSKŻ Kraków, as the main organizer, had the privilege of hosting 200 listeners who decided to spend one of their evenings with Jewish music, which came to us all the way from Belarus. However, this concert was not the only joint initiative. Apart from the photographs, we also organized three video recordings where Itzchak Horowitz, not just the co-sponsor but a man of unique vocal talent, performed songs with the band. One seems especially exceptional, due to the innovative idea of combining a prayer for Israeli soldiers which we can hear every Friday in the synagogue, with the popular melody from the 1977 film Raid On Entebbe, which tells of the Mossad freeing passengers from a hijacked Air France flight on June 27, 1976.
Somebody once taught me that at the beginning of each project there is chaos and the organizer (in this case TSKŻ Kraków) must be the squirrel, which slowly puts everything in order and makes it a success. I report that the squirrel fulfilled its duty.
(Below is a recording of the aforementioned song. Enjoy!)
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