Of Hadestown, Urinetown and Gili Adar, z”l

Today is Day 615 of Hamas induced Hell in the Holy Land as this horrific asymmetrical war continues to radically reshape the physical and psychological terrain of Israel, “Palestine,” Israelis and Palestinians. As Donald Trump exercises his unchecked power, it appears that Israel is preparing to finally use the firepower at Her disposal to make the world safer for all. That is the essential story. But as every reader of the Times of Israel knows, the story of Israel, the Jewish People, Zionism, the conflict with the Palestinians and the role of Hamas in galvanizing the Social Justice Warriors of our times to action is being told through a variety of distorted and dysfunctional lenses. Competing narratives if you will.

615 days into our traumatized New Reality, my urgent question is simple. What role  does someone like me, a late stage American Jewish Baby Boomer, play in rebuilding the Jewish State and the Jewish Future? Once upon a time, and frankly to this day,  I am invested in and play an active part in building and supporting the Jewish State. Those of us who were on the Young Leadership Cabinet of the UJA in the 1990’s participated in the rebirth of Jewish life in the Former Soviet Union. We flew with Russian olim from Warsaw to Tel Aviv and supported programs that integrated them into an Israeli society that would be changed by their presence. Through the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program (now called Partnership Together) Federations partnered with peripheral communities and development towns like Beit Shean and the surrounding regions, cultivating relationships abroad and civil society within. Our affluence and our influence helped transform Herzl’s dream of a Jewish State into a technologically sophisticated well armed Start Up Nation that was the envy of a cynical world. Yet, it was also our arrogance and deference that allowed the Core Values of the Zionist enterprise to slowly erode from within. 615 days since the worst attack against the Jewish people in our lifetime on our sovereign soil, we are still in the midst of a terrible dream. When do we finally awake? How do we finally awake? And what does waking up look like?

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman often compares the United States and Israel through the framework of Broadway/Off Broadway. Smiling as I merge my micro with our macro (I literally live right off Broadway at the corner of W. 108), I offer my thoughts on these meta questions for this new stage of Jewish history.

Several years ago I invested in a beautiful musical retelling of two Greek myths called “Hadestown”. Singer/songwriter Anais Mitchell wrote songs that wove together the sad love story of the impoverished wanderer Eurydices and the touched musician Orpheus with the tale of the powerful Hades and his love for Persephone. However, for the past 615 days, I haven’t been able to disconnect the mythic underground world ruled by Hades from the horrific subterranean Hell that are the terror tunnels of Gaza. Hades is literally Hell. Our hostages are still in Hell. Until they all come home, our People will not be healed.

Unlike some of my other Broadway investments, I continue to get a financial return on “Hadestown.” I always have an emotional connection to a theater project; I wouldn’t risk my financial resources if I didn’t believe in the story being told. This is the same reason so many of us have invested so much of our wealth in the building of both the State and People of Israel. We believe in the real life Zionist Story, even though being a part of the Story today means being immersed in communal grief and trauma. There is simply no other way to be 615 days into this horrific war. And according to the voices of the organized Jewish world, there is a “surge” of interest in being Jewish. So is this ongoing trauma and the world’s reaction to our People the proverbial wake up call? How sad that it took 1,200 deaths on one day to wake up a complacent American Jewish community. Tragically and darkly resonant of another moment of renewed interest in Jewish life sparked by the 1990 population study that warned us about the dangers of assimilation. Clearly, something went off the track along the way.

Two years ago, I took on the challenge of playing a leading role in a community theater production of a musical called “Urinetown”. Playing the role of Miss Pennywise, I had to maintain order at the public toilet where the poorest people in town came to take care of their basic needs. Water conservation during a time of drought was managed by charging people for the basic right to pee. The poor people stage a revolt against the company that owns the public toilets. The end of the story is that despite the good guys winning, everyone eventually dies during the final number because the river dries up because of the drought. In other words, despite being a Tony award winning musical, the story does not end well.

The simple moral of “Urinetown” is that without sharing and conserving basic resources, no society can survive. This is a tale as old as time. Those of us who have played a communal role in the development of relationships between countries in this Middle East know it is all about sharing of resources. How those resources are shared is the stuff of politics and geopolitics, economics and unfortunately armed conflicts. These are the conflicts that play out on the world stage. And for reasons that we all know too well, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, set in motion when the UN created UNRWA, allowing the Palestinians to dream their own dreams, takes center stage with too many funhouse mirrors surrounding the actors. And so, the Story as told is being distorted. But let us be clear: the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, asymmetrical warfare and a right wing government in Israel give the distortionists a lot of material to work with in this age of social media.

In a recent Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, Tom Friedman wrote this: “My tribe will pay dearly if we don’t resist Netanyahu’s ugly, nihilistic Gaza policy.” From my perch, I can say with certainty we are already paying dearly. I live 8 blocks south of the gates of Columbia University and I have been invoking the Hell of Hadestown and the basic needs of Urinetown for 615 days in heated exchanges around the neighborhood. Maybe if more of the affluent and influential were out and about in the thick of it, their perspective on what we need to do to wake up would change. Perhaps the alumni of the Young Leadership Cabinet would like to come and walk my dog with me and experience what it is like to be boots on the ground in the muck and mire of the pro-Palestinian movement. And then, come join me in standing  with the Hostage and Missing Family Forum on Sundays in Central Park until they all come home. They are still 53 hostages in Gaza. And the mourning and grieving and burying of the dead still continue for the families of the victims of the atrocities of October 7, 2023, which happened under the government of Bibi Netanyahu. And frankly “chevrei”, despite all of the support Israel has received over 76 years from an affluent and influential Diaspora, under our watch too.

Like Tom Friedman, my opinions on how we have arrived at this moment in Jewish  and world history and how we should proceed are well informed. While Tom has been prolifically writing and publishing about our shared experiences, I have been living those experiences Writ Large in Cleveland, New York City, Jerusalem, Beit Shean, in other words, wherever I go. As a Levite, not only do I live it, I sing about it. I sing our text and our story in synagogue on Shabbat and in rehearsal rooms in the G-d Box, down by the Riverside (Dr.) I’ve performed Acheinu on too many stages, too many times,  with all 3 of my Jewish choirs. With the Zamir Chorale and the next generation Zamir Noded, we’ve brought the “new” Am Yisrael Chai to New York with chants of “Free Them Now” punctuating the prolonged rest. In a conservative synagogue on Long Island led by a fellow Akronite, Rabbi Joel Levenson, the voices of the Shireinu Choir brought comfort to the family of Omer Neutra at the sacred ceremony dedicating a Torah in memory of their son, our son. And as my story usually goes, Joel’s mother, another Akron native, was sitting right in front of me. Together, two Akron girls whose Jewish identities were formed in the cradle of Beth El Congregation,  cried as we remembered lives lost in this moment in Jewish history and of another treasured dazzling life that was lost over 46 years ago. The sacred synchronicities will find me wherever go. That is the burden of being a Levite.

And so it is that I find myself in the midst of the musical storytellers of our time, providing the soundtrack for the trauma of October 7 and its aftermath. Music has always been a vehicle for both healing and social change, providing both comfort and a wake up call if you will. It is no coincidence that so many Broadway composers have been and still are Jewish. It is literally in our bones and in our blood. Nor is it any coincidence that two members of Shireinu met Orna and Eldad Adar, the parents of Gili Adar, z”l,  when they visited the Nova site in February of 2024.  In the fields of Nova, in the course of their conversation of comfort, Cheryl and Ellen learned that Gili had been a counselor at Camp Tel Yehuda and that like them, Orna sang alto in a choir. The bond established, Cheryl and Ellen returned home to Great Neck with the grief of the parents in their hearts. Cheryl also returned home with the idea to commission the acclaimed Jewish composer David Burger to work with her on a composition for the Shireinu Choir that would bring both the grief of the parents and the soul of the daughter to life through music. The result, “Beautiful Child (Gili’s Song)”, literally pulls on the heartstrings of Am Yisrael. This masterpiece captures the personal and communal grief, mourning and trauma in a way that allows me and my fellow singers, as well as the audience, to experience some type of release and healing.

On June 22 at 3 pm at Temple Beth El of Great Neck, Shireinu will perform the world premiere of Beautiful Child at our annual concert. Tickets are available at the Shireinu Choir of Long Island website. While our program spotlights Gili’s story, Shireinu will also bring to life other happier moments in our collective Jewish history under the direction of my dear friend Deborah Tartell. Our Jewish Story is difficult right now. Music is healing beyond measure. Join me and my Long Island singing community as we release some of the grief of our People as we sing Gili’s Song, blending our voices, raising her soul as She soars till the end of Creation. And may the next chapter of our Jewish story have a better ending.