Fiddler Ruby Harris was one of the original performers of The Diapora Yeshiva Band; a two-time consecutive winner of the Israel Chassidic Song Festival and one of the first modern Klezmer bands. Harris has jammed with the late great Shlomo Carlebach, Piamenta, and The Moshav Band. In addition, Ruby was voted Entertainer of the Year by Wild Chicago and won the appellation of Star at the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. The fiddler plays with Fruteland Jackson at the annual Chicago Blues Festival. Ruby has been an integral part of the Klezmer music scene’s renaissance and has performed with the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Andy Statman, The Klezmatics, Jazmer, The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, and Soulfarm. Ruby consented to an interview with http://www.safed.co.il/ on the subject of Klezmer.

Scratchy 78s

Q: Klezmer has undergone many changes through the years, from fiddle to clarinet and back to fiddle again, for instance. What do you see as the coming trend for this genre?

A:  Same pattern: find the latest trends, today even Rap, heavy metal, and reggae, and throw in some klezmer and vice versa. We’ve been throwing in bluegrass, Santana and Doors for years. Still, yet, there are always purists who stick to the scratchy old 78s, which we all love, of course.

Q: Do you think Klezmer is here to stay, or do you see the current popularity of this music as a trend that will fade and reemerge according to popular whim?

A: It will remain, like many of the other styles that are randomly called for at weddings, such as “Motown”, reggae, country, Celtic, blues, Disco, and Klezmer.

Q: How strong an influence does Roma or gypsy music and culture have on Klezmer music in general, and on your own playing in particular?

A: I’ve been playing Gypsy music forever. It’s a major family of music in the general Klezmer family. Lots of good fiddle music.

The Foxtrot

Q: Klezmer and jazz seem to complement each other and even crossover at times. How do you explain the connection between the two styles?

A: Today, as in the early 20th century, many jazz musicians make lots of extra money playing bar mitzvahs and weddings, plus some of the early clarinet or trumpet players got their start playing Jewish music, such as Benny Goodman, Max Kaminsky and Ziggy Elman. Even Charlie Parker and Red Rodney played bar mitzvahs. Jews like to keep up with the trends, so after 20 minutes of old style Jewish music, the bands were prodded by the balabus (the boss who hired them) or the crowd, or even a cute girl, to swing or jazz it up so they could dance the latest Peabody number, or foxtrot, or the Lindy Hop, or nowadays, the Twist or the Pony.

The Safed Klezmer Festival is back! This year, it will start on Tuesday, August 14 and run

through Thursday, August 16. See the Safed municipal page for more details on Klezmer 2018. You can also check in with the official Klezmerim site.

It’s that time of year again! This normally sleepy mountain town is about to become the place to hear the world’s best Klezmer music. For Klezmer 2017, the festival will be held from August 22 through August 24.

Five Stages, Dozens of Musicians – all Free!

The 29th annual Klezmer Festival will be Monday, August 15, Tuesday, August 16 and Wednesday, August 17.

Come for the whole festival or for one night. This international festival is the largest Jewish soul music festival in the world. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.

During these three evenings, there will be non-stop music on several stages throughout the Old City of Safed. If you plan to come for Klezmer in Tzfat, book your accommodation soon as every bed in town will be taken! If you come for one evening and are driving up, you will have to park your car at a designated lot outside Tsfat and then take a shuttle. When you arrive, pick up a program of events and stroll from stage to stage. This year, we’ve counted 35 artists and bands who will be performing in 70 concerts on five outdoor stages….under starry skies in the cool Tsfat night, of course!

Aside from three evenings of magical music, there is much more to do in Tsfat – for free! Check out the Klezmer Festival 2016 activities.

Klezmer Schedule 2016

Monday 15^th August

Monday 18^th August

Klezmer Festival Ignites a Fire

The year 2009 saw the successful staging of the 22nd annual Klezmer Festival in Tzfat.

Beginning in 1987, it was clear that the Klezmer Festival was an extraordinary opportunity for Jews of all backgrounds to gather in an open and festive atmosphere to listen to Jewish music and experience the magic of Tzfat.

The festival draws some of the world’s top musicians, and from those early days, it also quickly became evident that serious students of music were drawn to the festival to hear the great artists and learn from them. Throughout the years, various venues wer

In 2004, a model of Master Clarinet Classes began which has been repeated yearly until the present. During the week following the Klezmer Festival, the master musicians, led by Giora Feidman, conduct classes for master clarinet students throughout the day, and the evenings are devoted to their presentations, which are open to the public.

Klezmer Festival’s Beginnings

Throughout the ’50s and ’60, and even into the ’70s and ’80s, Tzfat was known among Israelis more for its secular nightlife and bohemian Artist’s Colony than it was as a religious center.

Israelis came to Tzfat from Tel Aviv to walk among the galleries and enjoy the clubs and decidedly non-religious at

mosphere. Many of Israel’s greatest artists either lived in Tzfat or maintained summer galleries in the town, and the people that they attracted were not interested in synagogue tours or Kabbalah study.

By the late ’70s, many of these artists were quite elderly, and no longer coming to Tzfat to open their galleries. At the same time, more and more religious families were settling in Tzfat, and the city was slowly turning to a more traditional way.

In 1987, Tzfat’s then-mayor, Zev Pearl, had a thought. He wanted to put Tzfat on the cultural map of Israel. He wanted to attract all Israelis to come to Tzfat. And he did not want to offend the growing religious population. So he came up with the idea of hosting a yearly “Klezmer Music Festival“. The music would be traditional Jewish Klezmer music, comfortable for the religious public, but “hip” enough to attract secular Israelis.

Thus was born the Tzfat Klezmer Festival which, in 2009, will be celebrating its 22nd anniversary.

Festival Set-Up

The 3-night festival is set up on open-air stages throughout the city, and entrance is free to almost all the stages (there are generally one or two stages with paid performances). Anyone who is in the city when the roads are closed may wander freely….for people coming in after 4:00p.m., when the police close the roads, parking lots are set up outside the town and buses ferry people back and forth for a small fee, since Tzfat itself doesn’t have the parking capabilities to accommodate so many people).

The stages are centered in the Artists Quarter and Old City, and schedules announce to the people attending the festival which artists are appearing when and where. Everyone has their favorites, and visitors plan their programs, insuring that they will be at the festival on the evening that their favorites are performing. Meryl Reznik, Musa Berlin and Hanan Bar Sela are three of the most sought-after performers, but the stages feature Klezmer bands from Budapest, Vilna and Germany, along with Israeli artists like Adi Ran, Boris Maglinik and Yisrael Zohar.

Fans of Oaf Simchas and Aaron Raizel and other not purely Klezmer bands can attend performances by these artists, and, of course, Tzfat natives like Simply Tzfat, Dov and Ita Silberman, Dani Hadad and Meir Glazer of the Beirav Carlebach Minyan are well represented. In fact, one stage, at Gan HaIr, is set up as a center for “Carlebach Non-Stop” stage, although Carlebach music is not Klezmer, it is one of the most popular stages.

The 2009 Klezmer Festival is scheduled for August 10th, 11th and 12th.

As early as the 16th century, theatre was embraced by the Jews in the form of playlets put on during

the Jewish holiday of Purim, known as Purim Spiels. The original spiels served the purpose of telling the story of Queen Esther, the female heroine of the Purim story. It wasn’t until the 19th century, however, that the Yiddish theatre was born. A journalist by the name of Golfarben gets t

A virtuoso fiddler who plays a wide variety of styles, Ruby Harris has performed at sold-out concerts at The Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center in New York City, Carnegie Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall. Harris has performed before former President Clinton, prime ministers and mayors. The talented musician has appeared before the Democratic National Convention, MTV and

 CBS Records. One of the first on the scene of the Klezmer renaissance, Harris has played with the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Andy Statman, The Klezmatics, Jazmer, The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, and Soulfarm. Here, Harris speaks about some of the influences on his music.

Q: How has cantorial music affected your playing—do you draw on any particular cantorial music or the cantors thems

elves for inspiration?

A: Just last week I played a concert in Chicago with the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute [Choir conducted by] Cantor He

rshtik and company. We both inspired each other very much. I’m a fan of the great cantors and any cantor that can move us spiritually.

Uplifting Combination

Q: Does Klezmer music have magical powers—can this music cause souls to awaken?

A: I’ve seen it constantly, on all levels, from babies to the elderly. Music talks where words lose their meaning, music talks and communicates to the Neshama, or soul. People who play music have the power to bring people very high, or, unfortunately, the other way, too. Klezmer music with Torah values is a marvelous uplifting combination.

Q: Performing music with rigor is a great workout. How would you rate the workout you get from playing Klezmer fiddle as compared to playing Bluegrass, Appalachian, or Cajun fiddle, for instance?

A: I, who play all those constantly, see no difference in any of them. Once we’re jammin’, we’re workin’ out and breakin’ it down, as they say. Recently, on [the Jewish holiday of] Purim, we had ’em dancing for 4 hours straight going wild. Weddings can be the same.

Very Present

Q: Music soothes the savage beast and when musicians play for themselves, they choose particular songs or genres according to their mood and whim. When you play just for yourself, what mood would you be in if you chose to play in Klezmer style and how do you feel when you put your fiddle down?

A: Klezmer for me is music for a good mood. I somehow am more inspired to play the up-tempo klezmer fiddle tunes, and the slower ones are beautiful and very present too. Putting my fiddle down is usually necessary to pick up my guitar, mandolin, or plate of fried chicken.