1 0 . 6 - Friday,- Sept e mber 1983 van= raw nacn - THE- DETi011 11EW111 11 - 4EWS Eurovision Contest Finalist Ofra Haza on Road to Fame to all By SHIMON BEN NOACH our friends It is often said that every competition has only one winner and many losers. But while Israeli singer Ofra Haza took second place in this year's Eurovision song contest the perform- ance could hardly be de- scribed as a losing one. The contest provided the perfect showcase for Haza to launch her international. career. Twenty nations were represented at Munich in April and the songs were beamed live by television to some 100 million viewers World Zionist Press Service and relatives NEIL &. ENID MADGY, RENEE, MATTHEW, DAVID, ANTHONY & ALEXANDER May the coming year be filled with health and happiness for all our family and friends PEGGY & RALPH GROSS 'anon 11'2.11.1 nav-2 to all our friends and relatives HERMAN & YETTA OPATOWSKI & FAMILY We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year VIVIAN, GAIL & AL BEST We wish our family and friend8 a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year ARTHUR & IRENE KEPES N. Miami Bch, Fla. We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MARSHA & HARRY KORN AND FAMILY We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MR. & MRS. JAMES KOVACS We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year ALYCE & MAURY LEVIN We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year DAVE & ETHEL NATINSKY OFRA HAZA • throughout Europe. Miss Haza's effervescence and stunning looks, not to mention her attractive re- ndering of the song "Am Yisrael Chai" (the people of Israel lives), were clearly a big hit. Show business entrepreneurs from all over Europe strove to sign up the 24-year-old Israeli from Tel Aviv's poor Hatikva quar- ter. Within a month of the competition Miss Haza had toured Belgium and Holland and had book- ings for Germany, Au- stria and France. In Norway she is due.to ap- pear- with actress Julie Andrgws in a special charity benefit for the In- ternational Red Cross. All this glamour and glit- ter is a far cry from Miss Haza's humble origins in one of Tel Aviv's toughest neighborhoods. Her parents came to Israel from Yemen in 1920 and Miss Haza is the youngest of 10 children, having seven sisters and two brothers. As a child she was always talented and when she was 12 she took up theater and music at a local workshop. In the army she served in an armored corps rather than an entertainment troupe, but renewed her singing career immediately afterwards. She experi- enced success after success, quickly becoming a local idol. The chance to extend her popularity beyond Is- rael's borders came last February when she triumphed in the national song festival and thus went forward to the major compe- tition in Germany. From the start it was clear that the song's lyrics, "The people of Israel lives," could be interpreted as a Shofar's Origins Explained By RABBI SAMUEL FOX We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year GERRY & LEO ROCHKIND 713)13 Me" Wishing all our family and friends a year of health and happiness KENNETH, NANCY, AARON & DAVID LIPSON . political statement by the other countries of Europe who would eventually be asked to vote on the song's' merits. Miss Haza's fears on this score were con- firmed before the contest. "A lot of delegations told me they thought the song was a political one," she says. "Because of this I was surprised to come second. With Israel's lack of popularity after the war in Lebanon I would have been happy with sixth place." Indeed there was a delib- erate motivation in select- ing the lyrics. Ehud Manor who wrote the words knew in advance that the song would be sung in Munich where the "bier kellers" once rang with the songs of the Nazis. Thus for him the chorus was a celebration of defiance against the Nazis' failure to complete their final solution. At the same time Avi Toledano, who wrote the tune, had selected -a lively melody to counter a mood of depression in Israel felt by many following the war in Lebanon. Clearly most nations voted according to artistic merits with Luxembourg just beating Israel. But be- cause neither Turkey nor Cyprus gave Israel a single point there was a feeling in Israel that political prej- udices had cost Miss Haza a well deserved victory. Yoram Kessel reporting in the London Jewish Chronicle put this feeling down to a national paranoia stemming from Israel's in- ternational isolation. He points out that in the last six years Israel has won the contest twice and finished second twice (coincidentally both previous winners, Yizhar Cohen and Gali Atari, are also of Yemenite origin). Kessel also notes that such hostile countries as Yugoslavia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, gave 10 points in the voting. Nevertheless, Miss Haza did receive strong hints from both the Tur- kish and Cypriot delega- tions in Germany that strict instructions had been given that no votes were to be awarded to Is- rael. The highlight of Haza's performances on her tour of Copyright 1983, JTA, Inc. Rabbinic sources claim that the bend in the shofar indicates the desirability that the human being must bend his will for the Al- mighty in order to repent and conform to the will of the Almighty. A straight- formed horn might indicate unyielding stubbornness while the bent form would indicate conformity with God's will. Also, it is preferable to use the horn of a ram for the shofar. A popular theory is that it was a ram which was substituted for Isaac as the sacrifice when Abraham was tested by the Almighty to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son. This por- tion of the scripture is read on Rosh Hashana. It indi- cates that instead of forfeit- ing our lives due to sin, other sacrifices can he made (such as charity, etc.) thus preserving our lives. Some claim that a horn of a cow cannot be used be- cause that would remind us of the sin ofthe Golden Calf. Others claim that the horn of a cow is made up of layers and the horn should be a simple one like a ram, a goat or a lamb. Europe is of course the song that came so close to win- ning. But in the event the. English translation of the song has depoliticized the lyrics with the chorus of "chai, chai, chai, am Yisrael chai" ("live, live, live, the people of Israel lives") be- coming "high, high, high, higher than the sky." Other lines on Jewish continuity have also been rewritten. But Miss Haza asserts that her future is in Israel where she is soon set to star in a television spectacular. Preach a sermon with your life. Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year TIL & AL HELFGOTT 6602 N.W. 14th Ave. Tamarac, Fla. 33319 vaT1311 nal\3 111V2 to all our friends and relatives MARION & SOL STEIN & FAMILY We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year LORRIE & BOB ABROMOVICH We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year DR. MORRIS & ANNE BRENT We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MAURIE & FLORENCE CASCADE We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MR. & MRS. ALEXANDER FRANK We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year SEYMOUR & SYLVIA FURMAN , We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year MURRAY & GOLDA J. HARTZ We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year LANKA & MARTIN ILKOW We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year IMMEDIATE CONST. CO . Florence & - Sam Landman We wish our family and friends a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year IRVING & MAMIE KATANICK Plantation, Fla. Me') Wishing all our family and friends a year of health and happiness _