In a display of unity and compassion, four Jewish, Arab, Kurdish and Indian musicians from across the Bay Area will take the stage together in a benefit concert to support Israeli and Palestinian aid organizations. The concert, “Singing Together,” will be held at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Basilica on Sunday, Nov. 24.
The event, which promises to be a powerful musical and cultural collaboration, will feature a lineup of artists with backgrounds spanning multiple genres — from Iranian classical to Middle Eastern folk to traditional Jewish, contemporary Israeli, modern jazz, Balkan and world music.
According to organizers Asaf Ophir, a Jewish Israeli clarinetist, and Catrene Malshey, a Christian Palestinian singer, the concert is more than just a fundraising effort. It is a call for solidarity in the face of ongoing conflict, with proceeds benefiting both Israeli and Palestinian aid organizations that provide humanitarian support to communities affected by the ongoing violence and displacement.
“After Oct. 7, I started participating in all sorts of dialogues between Jews and Palestinians, and talking to people, just people that I knew, trying to be open to conversations as much as possible,” said Ophir, who came to the Bay Area from Israel in 2014.
Through his conversations, Ophir found that unity and collaboration were key needs for both communities, so he came up with the idea of a benefit concert with participants from both sides of the conflict, with the proceeds going to organizations aiding children and civilians.
“It took a while to find people who really had the same views,” he said. “When I say views, I mean the same kind of attitude toward the whole thing, which is just to try to accentuate the positive and find common ground and build upon the common denominators that we have and look for things that we can do together in a positive way.”
Ophir met Malshey at a Middle Eastern music and dance camp in Mendocino, and the two quickly realized they not only had similar views, but both were actively looking to collaborate in the same way.
“Before him, I was approaching the Jewish community for concerts that are Arabic and Jewish, because my background is I’m Arabic, Christian, Israeli, Palestinian,” said Malshey, who came to the U.S. in 2002. “I grew up in Haifa and I speak all these languages and I’ve always wanted to do music with, you know … Jews are the group that are so-called ‘enemies,’ so I always love to bring people in conflict zones together through music.”
Malshey, who in addition to being a singer-songwriter works as a social worker, has regularly collaborated with Jewish and Israeli artists because she believes music can be a powerful tool to overcome division.
“I felt personally that this is the time to do this kind of concert. It’s time to change the conversation from brutality and people treating each other in such an inhumane way on both sides, and show people that actually, we can coexist,” said Malshey. “There are many of us that get along. We don’t fall into this story of animosity, and there’s a good percentage of us that see hope and see different roads to conflict resolution.”
In addition to Ophir on clarinet and Malshey on vocals, the two will be joined on stage by Kurdish Iranian oud and tar player Sirvan Manhoobi and Indian percussionist Mohini Vora. Manhoobi’s background is in Iranian, Arab, Turkish, Jewish, Balkan, Tajik and Afghan music. Vora plays the Egyptian tarabuka, Egyptian tabla, Egyptian tabla beledi, Turkish davul, frame drum and drum set. Together, the four musicians have selected a setlist of diverse songs from their respective traditions and worked to create unique renditions of classics.
“We wanted to choose music that was beloved for people who knew it, and familiar to people who knew it, and would be interesting for people who didn’t know it,” said Ophir. “So, for example, a song like ‘Eli Eli,’ which virtually everyone knows, we’re going to be doing it slightly differently with an oud, and we’ll do it in Arabic as well, and bring some different perspectives to the same existing song.”
Proceeds from the concert will be distributed equally among several nonprofit organizations working on the ground in Israel and in the West Bank. Donations will go to Israeli Children’s Fund, which supports children in Israel regardless of race or religion who have lost one or both parents in the conflict, and to two sister organizations of Jewish and Palestinian women working to bring about a peaceful resolution, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun.
Ophir and Malshey hope that the concert will not only boost those organizations, but also impact the audience.
“I’ve seen that there is a magical power that is bigger than all of us that happens on stage, especially when we combine the Arabic and Hebrew and English and Israeli music, and then, we do a Palestinian song, and after it, would do Iranian songs or a combination of music from the Middle East,” said Malshey. “I’ve seen people moved by it, people get up and start dancing. I really can feel everybody’s heart opening. It’s sort of like energy that is so trapped right now, and music just helps to release it and then something bigger than all of us happens.”