Moshav Band gains new fans

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The Vancouver Hebrew Academy fundraiser at the Arts Club Granville Island Theatre last week had many highlights. The headliners, L.A.-based Moshav Band, literally had the audience in a near frenzy, with young fans crowding the stage and dancing their hearts out.

When lead singer Yehuda Solomon threw his blue-rimmed sunglasses into the mass of youth – after they hung on his belt for most of the evening – and when he went body surfing on the older kids' outstretched arms, are memories that will keep for a long time.

The theatre was full, with all 450 tickets sold, and it was sweaty. Air-conditioning difficulties on one of the hottest nights Vancouver has experienced didn't put one iota of a damper on the evening though. Lisa Yeoman won a 32-inch flatscreen TV in a fun – and surprisingly quick – game called Hats-On, Hats-Off, which would take too long to explain here. The silent auction featured original artworks by VHA classes: painting, ceramics and more. With the appetizers catered by Nava Creative Kosher Cuisine, the event lived up to its theme, "Spirit and Spice."

The event committee of Abba Brodt, Hodie Kahn, Rabbi Don Pacht, Aimee Promislow, Dina Sacks and Rabbi Shmulik Yeshayahu, was chaired by Fred Tischler.

"For me, there were two images from the evening that will remain with me forever," Tischler told the Independent. "Seeing Jews come together for a single event from every corner of the Jewish community, with PTI [Pacific Torah Institute] yeshivah bochers dancing on one side of the theatre and Or Shalomniks, led by Rabbi Laura [Kaplan], on the other.

"And seeing the wide eyes of the VHA's children standing at the foot of the stage staring up in wonderment at an image of joyful observant Judaism that they could never have conceived of before. Who knew it was so much fun, not to mention so cool, to be a Jew?

"This was an enormous challenge for VHA on so many levels," he continued. "From the get go, I had the image in my head of the Little Engine that Could. And we did. And it was all worth it."

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