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To
Lif

America celebrates
• Israel's 50th anniversary
e: with a star-studded TV special.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News

T

he 8,000-mile distance
between Israel and the
United States may seem a
little shorter when CBS
broadcasts "To Life! America Cele-
brates Israel's 50th Anniversary."
The two-hour TV special, with
entertainment and commentary to
capture the spirit of Israel's half centu-
ry of growth, will go back and forth
between the two nations. Set to tape
on April 14, it will air in the United
States and Canada the next evening
between 9 and 11 p.m.
Hosts Michael Douglas and Kevin
Costner will introduce a bevy of stars
from both countries and show two
film segments — one about the pow-
erful emotions that went into found-
ing the state and another that offers a
land tour. Marvin Hamlisch will serve
as musical director.
"We want this to be an American
celebration, not necessarily a Jewish
celebration," said producer David
Goldberg, whose special events experi-
ence includes producing the opening
and closing segments of the Atlanta
Olympics, part of the change-of-
power ceremonies in Hong Kong and
festivities marking the 100th anniver-
sary of Carnegie Hall.
"We're going to have a stage setup
and an audience of 6,000 at the
Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles,
and we'll be interconnected with a
stage and audience of 600 at the
Tower of David in Jerusalem, which
has a relationship with three of the
great religions of the world — Chris-
tianity, Islam and Judaism.
"We felt it's important that this
show be ecumenical in nature, not
political, and we've had crews out
across America for the past several
weeks interviewing people about their
feelings toward Israel."
To enhance the ecumenical feeling,
there will be performers representing a
diversity of cultural backgrounds. On
Suzanne Chessler is a Farmington
Hills-based freelance writer.

the list are Harry Connick Jr., Winona
Ryder, Noa, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Gil Shaham and Motown's Stevie
Wonder, among others.
There will be a 60-piece orchestra
in Los Angeles and another in Israel,
and a children's choir in each country
as well.

Michael Douglas,
pictured co-hosts
"To Life!" with
Kevin Costnei:

"There will be times when a dance
number will be performed on the
stage of the Shrine and there will be
dancing to the same music on the
stage in Israel," Goldberg said. "The
youth choir in America will sing with
the youth choir in Israel."
There only will be one pre-taped

performance segment. Renowned
African-American soprano Jessye Nor-
man will sing on top of Masada, in
Hebrew and in English.
"I went to Israel in November with
Dennis Doty, [another producer], and
we spent about 10 days," recalled
Goldberg, who helped put together
the creative approach and is overseeing
the operations, logistics and financial
aspects of the show. "We began to
look at what we might do.
"We met with lots of people and
got a lot of cooperation, and we came
back and discussed our ideas with
executive producers Don Mischer
(Kennedy Center Honors) and Gil
Cates (producer of eight Academy
Awards shows), and with Mery
Adelson, international chairman of
Israel's 50th Anniversary Commit-
tee." Adelson is former chairman of
Lorimar Pictures ("Dallas") and a
director of Time-Warner.
Marvin Josephson, head of the
ICM talent and literary agency, co-
chairs the committee, and David
Hermelin, now serving as ambas-
sador to Norway, is a vice-chair-
man.

Not: One of
israels leading
perfimners.

Martitn
Hamlisch:
Musical
director.

• Noa
• Jessye Norma
• Mark O'Connor
• Winona Ryder
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Gil Shaham
• Stevie Wonder
• Noah Wylie