American-Israel Cultural Foundation 72nd Anniversary Gala

[Mitchell Acks]

The 72nd Anniversary Gala for the American-Israel Cultural Foundation at the Rose Theater provided an impressive and realistic overview of Israel’s rich cultural life.

There was a preliminary VIP reception with authentic hors d'oeurves, during which the diverse crowd was able to intermingle and enjoy the great view of Columbus Circle.  The audience was also able to observe the American-Israel Cultural Foundation Gala Artists in an enjoyable interactive setting. Some of the art works that I found interesting and different were Shai Kremer's art work of Lifta, View of Highway, Itamar Jobmani's art work, Colliding Couple, Orit Ben-Shirit's art work, Plunging Fingers in the Film of Night, and others.

The  first portion of the gala started with a beautiful duet dance. Next, interesting classical scores were performed by an eleven year old pianist, Alon Kariv. Soon after, a mother and son team, Miriam Fried, who is one of the prominent violinists and her son, Jonathan Bass, a brilliant pianist, performed angelic music.

The second portion consisted of 13 Israeli songs. The audience was moved by such classics such as, 'Exodus Theme", "Jerusalem of Gold," and others. The singers and the musicians blended in a harmonious fashion.The ending to a wonderful cultural event was the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah.