Toward the end, the stage went dark, and there was a harrowing recording, by Shlomo Katz, of a hymn to the victims of the Nazis’ death camps. Then the lights came up and the torches of love and hope were lit, ghazals in Hebrew and Arabic, songs in Ladino and Greek, until finally everyone was singing, his or her own song, together. A final volley from the shofars and anafirs and the three-hour program was over, despite the audience’s prompting for an encore. Too bad more politicians aren’t musicians.

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ARTICLES BY JEFFREY GANTZ
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