new orleans | Think of New Orleans music and you don’t usually think of Hebrew or Yiddish.
But Hebrew, Yiddish and English tunes filled the ears of nearly 1,000 music lovers April 1 and 2 as a variety of acts — ranging from New York pop singer Gershon Veroba to Moldovan crooner Efim Chorny — converged on New Orleans for a two-day benefit concert.
Organizers said the New Orleans International Jewish Music Festival was expected to raise at least $75,000 for local Jewish institutions shattered by Hurricane Katrina last year. That includes $50,000 in donations already collected from private individuals and institutions, and another $25,000 from the sale of tickets, CDs, T-shirts and other souvenirs.
But this was more than just a fund-raiser: The gathering also brought badly needed joy to a city that has mostly suffered in the seven months since Katrina.
“Music is a very powerful thing,” singer Neshama Carlebach said. “Being in New Orleans has been heavy for me; it’s very difficult seeing all this destruction first-hand. So I hope I can bring some healing.”
The city famous for jazz, blues, Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras certainly could use a little of Carlebach’s healing.
Fewer than 200,000 of New Orleans’ approximately 500,000 residents have returned since the storm. The Jewish community has fared a little better: About 70 percent of the Big Easy’s pre-hurricane Jewish population of 9,500 has returned.
Billed as a sort of Jewish Woodstock, the event kicked off Saturday night at the Howlin’ Wolf, a club in New Orleans’ Warehouse district, then continued Sunday afternoon at a half-filled auditorium on the Tulane University campus.
Organizers had hoped to attract more people, but they were forced to compete with the NCAA basketball Final Four, in which nearby Louisiana State University was a semi-finalist.
Still, those who showed up weren’t disappointed.
“My grandfather saw an ad in Moment magazine and told me about this,” said Tulane student Zack Rothbart, 19. “I think it’s great all these musicians were able to put on such a concert.”
Faye and Chip Merritt drove four hours from Pensacola, Fla., to attend the Sunday show.
Some of the most popular acts included West Coast musicians Fran Avni, Sam Glaser and RebbeSoul, as well as Nashville singer Stacy Beyer and New York’s Voices for Israel and Blue Fringe.
The event was put together in just three months by sculptor Gary Rosenthal of Kensington, Md., and his friend Michael Monheit, the Washington-based publisher of Moment.
Rosenthal said he came up with the idea after one of his New Orleans clients, French Quarter gallery owner Dashka Roth, lost her home in Katrina.
Moved to help, Rosenthal arranged for his Hiddur Mitzvah Project to create close to 1,000 menorahs and dreidels. Some $40,000 worth of these objects were donated to the Jewish community of New Orleans at a Chanukah party.
Rosenthal didn’t want to stop there. That’s when he contacted Monheit.
“I told him I’d like to have a concert in New Orleans, a free concert at the JCC. He said, instead of one or two artists, let’s have a festival. He said, ‘Gary, why don’t you make a Jewish Mardi Gras? If you’re gonna do it, let’s do it right.'”
According to Monheit, the event was produced for $50,000, but only because the artists donated their time. He hopes to make it an annual event.
Avni, who’s been singing in Hebrew and English for close to 30 years, said she didn’t have to think twice about performing for free in New Orleans.
“Having a music festival with people who aren’t getting paid, but donating their efforts, is very special,” she said. “We rarely get a chance to do something like this.”