News-Record.com

HAIFA--Being a native of California, I grew up with the best of both worlds - ocean and mountains. So when we pulled into the city of Haifa, I lit up like a little girl on her birthday sitting in a sea of presents. Haifa is an exquisite port city. Much of it is built on Mt. Carmel and the views are unparalled.

View of Haifa from Bahai Shrine on Mt. Carmel

View of Haifa from hotel room on Mt. Carmel

In addition to generous views, Haifa has generous residents. It's the number one city in Israel for charitable giving even though its only Israel's third largest.

And if that weren't enough, Haifa is know as city of "real coexistence." This was expressed by those who work at Beit Hagefen, an Arab-Jewish center established in 1963. Why is there so much co-existence here? Beit Hagefen staff joke, "Moses wasn't here, Jesus wasn't here and neither was Mohammad. There's nothing to fight about!"

Haifa is an island of sanity in an insane area for Israelis.

For me it's like home.

Friends I made at a local cafe with the best lattes ever! The man on the far right is a soap actor. To the left are his daughter and his daughter's friend.

Keren, the lovely girl who made my soy latte absolute perfection

HAIFA--The Yuval Ron Ensemble performed two concerts while in Israel. The first was at a theater in the Arab-Jewish Center in Haifa: Beit Hagefen. The second was as part of the International Oud Festival in Jerusalem.

As you may have already read, Haifa feels like home to me and this was only underscored by the the concert. From the first song, the audience opened their hearts to the music and the message. Najwa Gibran sang with such beauty and intensity, I couldn't help myself from clapping and shouting AYWAH! "Aywah" means "yes!" but it is not the kind of "yes" which answers a question in the affirmative. It is the "yes" of emotion, when you have no choice but to cry out.

Najwa Gibran singing a composition of her father's

An Arab woman sitting to the right of me echoed my aywahs. I turned to her and smiled. She responded in kind with a warm smile that glowed from her eyes. The rest of the concert we clapped and shouted together. The music connected us even though I only know four words in Arabic and she didn't speak English.

Audience at Beit Hagefen

The Yuval Ron Ensemble's concerts span cultural and spiritual modalities by playing Jewish, Sufi and Christian Armenian music. That audiences in the Middle East respond to their concerts re-invigorates their mission of peace which at times can be daunting.

The last song was a Sufi song. Yuval Ron invited the audience to participate by clapping and singing. You could feel the energy rise and joy burst out as everyone in the room joined in. All the musicians stopped playing except for Norik on clarinet. The band came to the edge of the stage, clapping and singing with the audience. We were one at that moment. No longer band and audience. No longer Israeli or American, Arab or Jew, Christian or Muslim. Just people in the midst of the divinity of music.

The Yuval Ron Ensemble ignites audience at Beit Hagefen

Following the concert was a reception with food and drink. CDs sold like crazy and enthusiasm from the concert filled the halls outside the theater. Everyone mingled. It was a night of celebration. A night that united hearts.