4 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