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Friday, October 11, 19 57—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-40
Opening of Tel Aviv Cultural . Center
Shakes All of Israel with Deep Emotion
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
TEL AVIV—All of Israel literally shook with emotion all
of last week out of the joy of seeing the completion of another
great cultural attainment.
The dediCation of the Frederic Mann Auditorium in the
new Tel Aviv Cultural Center was a signal for jubilation and
celebration, for emphasis on the spiritual values which are so
vital to Israel's existence.
The concert itself was a great demonstration of Israel's
determined will not only to be strong on the battlefield—in the
young State's defense against invaders and hostile neighbors—
but also to continue the ancient
Hebraic cultural traditions that of that amity he asked the orchestra
are emphasized in the prophetic to play the Star Spangled Banner
admonition: "not by might, nor by as its opening number.
power, but by my spirit, saith the
An interesting incident occurred
Lord" (Zechariah 4:6).
during the testing of the Tel Aviv
Israel's Prime Minister and Mrs. - Center's accoustics several weeks
David Ben-Gurion, President and ago. On the morning after Isaac
Mrs. Itzhak Ben-Zvi, U. S. Charge Stern's test, one newspaper's head-
d'Affaires William 0. Baxter and a lines screamed: "Isaac Stern Plays
score of ambassadors from other to Empty House." Stern later said
countries were present at the his- that he treasured that review more
toric event; U. S. Ambassador Ed- than any other in his career; it
ward B. Lawson is on a holiday in' was true, he had played to nearly
an empty house—to test the ac-
the States.
coustics.
Leonard Bernstein gave such a
magnificent demonstration as di-
It was a thrilling experience to
rector of the concert that this lit- see the audience of people in formal
tle country will long remember attire, at the concert, mingling with
him. Isaac Stern was superb as Israelis in army uniforms; girls in
violin soloist and Artur Rubin- blouses and skirts; coatless boys with
stein, piano soloist, stole the show open neck shirts. Mink and ermine
as the concluding soloist and fraternized with slacks.
broke a rule by giving an encore
Sold out far in advance of the per-
after playing the Beethoven Con- formance, the first night's concert
certo No. 5 with the orchestra. was repeated a second time—again
A sensational portion of the pro- to a packed house. Interestingly
gram was the appearance of Paul enough, the demand for tickets was
Tortelier as cello soloist. Gregor so great that the $37.50 charge for
Piatigorsky was to have played; but seats did not deter even a numb'er
he was prevented from coming to of servicemen in the Israel army
Israel by an emergency operation. from .purchasing seats in advance.
Tortelier was invited at his sugges-
"It's an event of a lifetime," one
tion and he made the trip on 24 of them explained, "and I could not
hours' notice. He enchanted his begrudge myself the great joy of
audience with his cello accompani- participating in it." In a number of
ment to Bloch's "Schelomo." Piati- instances, couples bought one ticket
gorsky could not have chosen a for two—one seeing half of the con-
better substitute.
cert and the other taking over after
Between Bernstein's inspired di- intermission.
rectional work and the enchanting
Thus, cultural aspirations are pur-
efforts of Tortelier, great beauty was sued in Israel in adherence to tra-
added to the event.
ditionally cultural habits.
More about Tortelier later. Suf-
Michigan had. better than a front
fice it for the present to indicate seat at the formal dedication of the
that this young French, non-Jewish Tel Aviv Cultural Center. It has all
musical genius had fallen in love the seats in the Frederic R. Mann
with Israel; that he and his wife, Auditorium—gift of the Philadephia
mother and sister lived in Kibutz patron of music—which is 'to serve
Maabaroth, that there he created an as headquarters for the Israel Phil-
Israel Symphony.
harmonic Orchestra.
The concert became a national
American Seating Company of
event and was transformed by Prime Grand Rapids, Mich., provided the
Minister Ben-Gurion into a demon- 2,560 chairs for this auditorium.
stration of friendship for the United Yaakov Rechter of Tel Aviv, archi-
States. Ben-Gurion opened the con- tect of the Tel Aviv Center, went
cert with a declaration of deep ap- to Grand Rapids earlier this year
preciation for what Americans had to design the riser-type chairs.
done for Israel, and in recognition These self-rising seats, specially
made fully-upholstered, are of black
cairo twisted loop. The arm rest
is made of natural finished wood.
The standards are of cast iron and
are orange colored.
Interestingly enough, the Amer-
ican Seating Co. also supplied the
seats for the 20th Century Fox The-
ater that is. opening this Tuesday in
Tel Aviv. The Grand Rapids firm
provided 1,708 fully-upholstered pad-
ded backs for self-rising seats and
210 fully-upholstered seats with
Spring backs. Because of the duty
involved, the paddings for the the-
ater chairs were clone in Israel.
The America-Israel Cultural Foun-
dation, which is headed by Frederic
Mann as chairman of the national
board, has conflicted the major ac-
tivities for the establishment of the
magnificent Tel Aviv Cultural Cen-
ter.
ARTUR RUBINSTEIN
ISAAC STERN
LEONARD BERNSTEIN