Beth Hamidrash fund-raiser sings

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

It was liturgical music like never before ... or, at least, like it's rarely heard. Cantor Shimon Sibony headlined the first annual Shalom, Peace Concert and sent a near-capacity crowd at the Norman Rothstein Theatre home humming.

A fund-raising event for Congregation Beth Hamidrash, the Jan. 29 concert was the brainchild of the synagogue's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ilan Acoca. The first of its kind, it garnered letters of congratulation from Premier Gordon Campbell, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and Vancouver-Fairview MLA Gregor Robertson. It brought out approximately 300 people to the Norman Rothstein Theatre on a very rainy night and raised more than $25,000 for the synagogue, which is the only Sephardic congregation west of Toronto.

Acoca knows Sibony from Montreal.

"I came from Montreal six years ago," said Acoca, "and I knew about him. It was always in my mind to have a concert, something going on, a musical event to show the community what Sephardic music was all about. Finally, when I spoke with Bill [Iny, the synagogue's director] – last summer we were trying to get ideas of what will work – we thought about the concert. He asked me if I had someone and I said, 'Yeah, Shimon Sibony, he's the guy.'

"I had a CD of Shimon and Bill heard it and said, 'Yeah, he's the guy. Let's go for it.' And that's how we connected [with Shimon]."

When the rabbi called Sibony about the concert in the summer, the subject of the High Holidays came up and the congregation ended up welcoming the cantor as their musical leader for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur period. This introduction of Sibony to the community helped create a buzz for last month's performance.

While Sibony is currently living in Montreal, he is planning to make aliyah after Passover. Acoca said that Sibony has lived in Israel before, after leaving Morocco, but then came to Canada to be closer to his family in Toronto, where he also lived for a time.

Sibony has a wide vocal range and performs in Hebrew, Spanish and Arabic. For the Shalom, Peace Concert he chose as his repertoire a mix of melodies – opera, popular Israeli and other genres – but all with lyrics that were based on prayers or verses from religious texts.

"His point was to draw more people," said Acoca, "because he has two types of music that he sings and he didn't concentrate on the ancient Sephardic music.... As we spoke, and I told him [about] the crowd we had and everything, we both felt that he should bring something more contemporary in order to connect [with] more people. And people, I think, generally speaking, really appreciated that."

Iny is head of the fund-raising committee and, as such, was a major organizer of the concert. He joked that he was "crow-barred" into the fund-raising job by the rabbi.

"So, I figured, if I have to harass people, I might as well do it for something fun," said Iny, laughing.

To decide who would headline the concert, Iny said they listened to many tapes from many different singers.

"I wanted it to be something entertaining, something we can give back to the community," he explained. "Usually, dinners are pretty run of the mill; everybody goes to a dinner and it's the same thing, and I figured, you know, we should really entertain and make them feel they got something for their money. And we were looking for something reflective of Sephardi culture, Sephardi music and, in listening to a lot of tapes and then talking to a lot of people, trying to source out somebody, Shimon really hit the spot because he had everything; he had Arabic, Ladino, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Gypsy Kings, you name it, he could do it all."

This was a major event for Beth Hamidrash and the larger Jewish community.

"I think we wanted to convey a really good will and a good spirit for Israel, and coming and emanating from Israel," said Iny of the purpose of the Shalom, Peace Concert. "Everything from the biblical teachings to the culture, spreading a message of peace and goodwill throughout the world, music joins people in all that, especially because of all the different dialects and cultures that come through Sibony's music."

Acoca is not content to rest on his laurels.

"The day after the concert," he said, "I started to really think about next year; what are we going to do, who is going to come, which singer, etc.... This concert really brought good energy and my vision for next year is to have something even bigger than what we had this year. That's my goal."

This year's concert included the Vancouver Jewish Men's Choir and Cantor Mordechai Edel. Sibony was accompanied by Marius Baetica, who is an accomplished musician himself. The concert was a large effort and one, said Iny, that the congregation put together as a way of thanking the community.

"Sephardi communities throughout the world are really dwindling," he said. "My generation is the last Sephardi community that's going to be coming out of the Middle East.... What this represented to us, it was a way for us to say thank you for supporting us in the past, thank you for supporting us now, we hope you'll continue to support us in the future and, for that, we're going to try and bring you some Sepahrdi culture to enrich your own culture."

Acoca also lauded the community for their generosity toward Beth Hamidrash, noting in particular the support for the building of the congregation's current facility.

"My vision is that one day this place is going to be a Sephardic Centre. We're going to always have a synagogue, there's no doubt about it, but my vision of it is that we're going to have a Sephardic Centre where people will be able to come to be educated and to have, not only a rabbi, but teachers who are going to be here; and not just religiously, but socially, to have a place where people, where teens, will be able to come and to connect to their roots and to Sephardic Judaism."

The CD that Sibony recorded especially for this event, The First Annual Shalom, Peace Concert – Vancouver, is available for purchase at Beth Hamidrash. For more information, call 604-872-4222.

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