City to Celebrate Reunification with Yom Yerushalayim Concerts

Pop, trance, Hasidic, klezmer and more will be mixed with a reverence for the events 46 years ago that opened up a besieged city.

The Municipality of Jerusalem has arranged concerts and activities to celebrate Jerusalem Day, or Yom Yerushalayim, on Tuesday night and Wednesday. The official government holiday celebrates the re-unification of the capital city after 19 year of occupation by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This includes the Old City which was off-limits to all non-Jordanian Arab citizens.

The annual Yom HaStudent, or Student Day, will take place Tuesday evening, as part of the Jerusalem Day celebrations. Big name Israeli acts will perform for special discount prices for all Israelis with a college or university student ID.


Dubbed "White Night in the Capital," Jerusalem's Student Day will take place in Sacher Park.

Flag dance on Jerusalem Day (archive)

Cousins Ehud Banai and Eviatar Banai will perform. The critically acclaimed singers mix Sephardic music, rock and pop. Ehud Banai's latest CD is "Drops of the Night" from 2011, and prior to that he released Shir Hadash, an album of religious compositions from Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. His younger cousin Eviatar Banai's latest release was 2009's "Night As The Day Does Shine," which contains songs of a spiritual and Judaic nature.

Israeli trance group Infected Mushroom will perform. The hit group has just released a remix album featuring collaborations with Israeli acts such as Hatikva 6, Asterix and more.

Also performing will be Ethnix, a much loved Israeli band who released a string of hits in the 1990s. The well-established musician Yehudit Ravitz will take the stage, as will the new up-and-coming violin virtuoso Michael Greilsammer. Also performing will Red Band, a satirical act that performs as puppets.

The concert will begin at 9:15 p.m. and is being produced by the Jerusalem Municipality, the Hebrew University Student Union, David Yellin College, Bezalel art college, Hadassah College and others.

The mega concert is one of several special events on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day.

The national youth conference for the unification of Jerusalem will include a number of events that will take place in the city, from the quaint Nachlaot neighborhood to Armon HaNatziv promenade to the south, and going down through Ammunition Hill, the site of fierce battles in 1967 and on through Mount Scopus and reaching Hinnom Valley. The event will be attended by almost 12,000 youth from around Israel. It will end with a youth assembly at 6:30 p.m. at the Sultan's Pool. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, and others will speak.

Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, the Torah academy founded by former Chief Rabbi Avaraham Yitzchak Kook, will hold its annual Yom Yerushalayim celebration on Tuesday. Celebrated veteran klezmer clarinetist Moshe "Musa" Berlin will perform as well as Hasidic pop singer Akiva Margaliot. Participants will conduct their traditional walk from the yeshiva to the Western Wall. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to attend. Other local neighborhood events will take place as well.

Events will continue on Wednesday, the actual date of Jerusalem Day. An official reception with Mayor Nir Barkat at the Tower of David Museum  in the Old City at 3:00 p.m., and the Yakir Yerushalayim award ceremony honoring a worthy citizen of Jerusalem. The city hall's main event is "Jerusalem, for You! Singing Jerusalem on its day of celebration in Safra Square" at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Achinoam Nini and Gil Dor will be the headliners singing Israeli standards accompanied by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

There will also be free tours, a national memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers of the Six Day War, and the annual Ethiopian Jewry Memorial Ceremony at Mount Herzl cemetery.
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Public transportation in the area will continue via alternate routes. For additional information, call Egged at *2800.

On Wednesday, May 8, the main event will be the “Rikudegalim” flag dance and parade, followed by prayers at the Kotel (Western Wall). The following roads will be shut down at some point between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.: Betzalel, Yitzchak Kariv, Hamelech Shlomo, Shlomtzion Hamalka, Yinnai, Hamelech David, Hativat Hatzanchanim and Haim Bar Lev, which will be closed to from the Sderot Levi intersection to David Hamelech Street.

South-bound traffic on Haim Bar-Lev Street will be redirected to David Remez Street, and north-bound traffic will be redirected to Sderot Eshkol.

Traffic jams are expected on main roads near the city center.

On Thursday, May 9, World War II veterans will march in honor of the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. The march will take place in the city center beginning at 10 a.m.

From 11 a.m., the following roads will be closed: Hahistadrut, Shammai, Biankini, and Mevo Hamatmid. Hillel Street will be closed from its intersection with King George Street to the Menashe Ben-Yisrael intersection.

At 5 a.m. the Jerusalem Syndrome creative arts festival will begin in the Rehavia neighborhood. Traffic will stop on Keren Kayemet Leyisrael Street from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

For further information, Jerusalem residents can contact the municipality at 106.



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