Wind whipped the long dress of a tiny girl in a red knit cap as she jigged to the music of Israeli rock star David Broza, waving her cotton candy and smiling fetchingly to enchanted bystanders.
A few yards away, a father danced a wild salsa with his own young daughter as two silver-haired women in babushkas watched approvingly from a bench.
And by the time Broza tore into “Haifa, Haifa,” Israelis and Israelis for a day had sprung to their feet, tearing at the air with palms outstretched, whooping and hooting.
An estimated 8,000 showed up for Sunday’s annual Israel fair, which returned to San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens after two years at Golden Gate Park. The weather, breezy but sunny, couldn’t have been better.
“Israel in the Gardens,” a free, five-hour celebration of Israel’s 51st birthday, was sponsored by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Israel Center, the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, the Consulate General of Israel and the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education.
Gen-Xers and families with young children abounded, although the crowd that gathered to hear Israeli performers Hedva Amrani and Broza was also dotted with numerous silver-white heads.
“I’m going to do a love song,” Broza called out at one point. “What else is there?”
For those who don’t know, Broza is a personable performer who sounds something like Brazilian pop singer Djavan, but uses a percussive, flamenco-flavored, guitar style.
“I like him very much,” said Tel Aviv graduate student Marcella Karpuj as she snapped photos.
“I love it — the singing, the energy,” said David Heller, owner of The Beauty Network store and president of the Geary Street Merchants Association. “There are just so many Israelis here.”
In fact, regulars said they thought more Israelis attended this year than in years past.
“It feels like I am among friends,” said Nurit Landon, a native of Haifa, as 1-year-old daughter Afik toddled around her in circles.
Many Israelis said they brought their American-born children to give them a taste of the “old country.”
Yoav Ohayon, a martial-arts instructor, brought sons Nadav, 11, and Alain, 7, and daughter Nadine, 5, “to see some roots — the way I grew up, the Israeli traditions.”
It clicked. “Everybody’s Israeli!” said Nadav. “Everyone’s proud to be a Jew.”
Zion Koren, 43, brought 4-year-old daughter Carmelle. “I wanted her to hear the Hebrew songs, get the atmosphere,” he said. “It is for me nostalgie. I remember going to David Broza concerts with my friends when we were 20. He was the guy.”
Said graphic designer Sasha Plotitsa,”I had no idea there were this many Israelis in San Francisco.” Plotitsa, like his girlfriend, Irene Feldman, was impressed by Broza. However they wearied of the long lines for food, which, he said, was just “OK after standing for a half-hour.”
“I waited in line so long I missed the whole thing!” a woman lamented as Amrani left the stage.
While some decried the high cost of foods — one booth charged $5 for a “gourmet cookie” — the kids didn’t seem to be complaining. The event featured a fair-within-a-fair especially for children. What first appeared to be an enormous giggling dragon turned out to be an inflatable amusement through which scores of kids wriggled.
“The best part was the arts and crafts — and eating my mom’s hot dog,” said Natalie Man, 9, who, with her sisters, had her face festooned with glitter-paint leaves. “I made a kind of a silver thing and a kind of a hand thing. And I liked the puppets.”
That’s the oversized puppets of the Monkey Thump Theatre. The troupe performed a slapstick send-up of Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz, who has resisted loosening his grip on the Headwaters old-growth redwood forests owned by his company. Children roared with laughter as “monkeys” pelted Hurwitz with pies.
In the audience was Broza; he smiled broadly as an actor dressed as the biblical leviathan sang “Al Shlosha D’varim.” The troupe came back, monkeys and all, for a 4 p.m. reprise by popular demand.
Bits of conversation about the recent election floated in the air throughout the day like so many kite strings.
One woman claimed the peace process would go on “despite the election,” and another shot back, “Despite? Despite? Thank God for the election!”
Talking to a customer at a JCF booth, volunteer Gayla Schiff said, “Hopefully, Israel will hear our cry for peace, and the new leader will bring more to the peace process.”
Schiff was all smiles. She sold several of Hedva’s CDs and sold out of Broza’s entirely: “We have David Broza on back order.”
But other vendors said sales were a mixed bag. Schlomo Lehaui, who sells Judaica, had “no complaints,” but added business was brisker a year ago.
East Bay mezuzah-maker Alan Leon “only sold one thing all day,” while his boothmate, Eva Strauss Rosen of Hamza Design Studio, said she rang up more sales at last year’s “Israel at 50” fair at Golden Gate Park, despite rain and chilly weather.
For many, the main attraction, as one woman put it, was bumping into “people I haven’t seen in years.”
Even as vendors at Dina’s Kosher Catering were slashing prices on remaining hot dogs (“One dollar! One dollar! Close out! Close out!”), many were still lingering to visit with old friends.
Although many Israelis enjoyed the haimish feeling of being surrounded by the familiar, some Americans wished for the vibrant ethnic and cultural mix typical of crowds at local festivals such as Juneteenth, Carnaval or Chinese New Year.
“I would have liked to see Asians, Latinos, everyone here for this,” said Sheila Finn, a San Francisco social worker. “Next year, they should make a special invitation to all children, and teach children to dance the hora.”