Jerusalem Day celebrated at international gathering

By Donald H. Harrison

CHULA VISTA, California –Christians and Jews from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday evening, May 28, celebrated the reunification of Jerusalem with songs about the City of Gold, an interpretive dance, some enthusiastic shofar blowing, and a hora around the meeting room of the Restoration Ministry on the grounds the mainly-Latino congregation shares with the South Bay Baptist Church.

The Yom Yerushalayim celebration brought the women of the Beth Am Choir from the Carmel Valley section of San Diego together  in Hebrew, Spanish, English and Ladino songs in a joint performance with Jonathan Valverde, a strong and powerful tenor, who is the founder of Latinos for Israel and the son of the Restoration Ministry’s Pastor Efrain Valverede, Jr.

Dignitaries in the audience included pastors from sister ministries stretching from Ensenada, Mexico, to San Marcos, California, as well as Chula Vista City Councilwoman Mary Salas (a former member of the state Assembly who is now running for mayor of Chula Vista), and Claire Ellman, former chair of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, and her husband David Ellman.

Salas was invited to the celebration by Geoffrey Berg, whose wife Carla performed a Hebrew solo of Psalm 137, “If I forget You, Jerusalem” during the concert. Salas commented that she once had made plans to visit Israel with the Anti-Defamation League, but had to cancel them, because at the time of the trip, she and fellow members of  the state Assembly were locked in chambers until the state Budget could be passed.

The formal part of the evening’s celebration began when sisters Lesly Sarahi Gutierrez and Ruth Natalia Gutierrez performed with their teacher Yary Silvas an interpretive dance to a song expressing longing to visit The Temple in Jerusalem and to come closer into God’s presence. The young dancers, of elementary school age, are known as the Princesas de Adonai – God’s princesses – and don’t we all feel that way about our granddaughters!

 

Welcome was extended by Pastor Valverde, who said his ministry was founded by his father, also named Efrain, right after the 6-Day War in 1967. The Reunification of Jerusalem, he said, “ignited a tremendous passion for us” resulting in the founding of a church in which “people have a real deep support for Israel and the Jewish people.”  In front of most Restoration Churches, he said, one typically will find a large Star of David.

The pastor added that among the people who are attracted in Mexico to Israel are a segment of the population in Oaxaca, Mexico, who speak an indigenous dialect, not Spanish, but for reasons that are unclear, know how to recite the shm’a in Hebrew. (“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”) He said the Restoration Church, with its focus on Israel, has attracted members throughout Latin America

Jonathan Valverde opened the concert with a song in Spanish that had been composed by his grandfather Efrain, the church’s founder, “Bendita Jerusalem” (Blessings for Jerusalem). He sang with remarkable range and emotion. No stranger to community-wide celebrations, Valverde, a music teacher who leads the mariachi band, Alas de Aguila (Eagle’s Wings), was featured in a November 2013 Salute to Israel at Sherwood Auditorium in which he sang with IDF Chief Cantor Shai Abramson.

The Beth Am Choir followed with a program of music that was selected both from the Bible and from modern Israel. The choir was led by Elisheva Edelson, who having immigrated to the United States from Monterrey, Mexico, readily followed the Valverdes’ example of speaking first in either Spanish or English, and then quickly translating into the other language.

The all-women’s Choir performed a medley of “Ki Mitzion” and “Leshana Haba’a,” taken from Isaiah 2:3; as well as “Shalom Al Israel;” “Toda;” “Haleluya;” and, switching to Ladino, “Kantermos a Yerushalaim (Songs of Jerusalem).”

Besides Berg, soloists included Edelson, accompanying herself on a drum, in “Shabhi Yrushalayim” from Psalm 147 “”Praise Hashem, O Jerusalem, laud your God, those who hope for His kindness” and Jonathan Valverde in “Por Amor de Sion” (For the Love of Zion) from Isaiah 62: “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be still, until her righteousness emanates like bright light, and her salvation blazes like a torch.”

Valverde and the Beth Am Choir performed on a stage that was book-ended by large projections of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Tower of David. While there was Christian symbolism throughout the sanctuary – including a cross and stained glass windows depicting scenes from the New Testament – a flag of Israel was a central symbol on the stage, with soloists performing by its side.

Edelson told the story of Naomi Shemer, who prior to the 6-Day War, composed the hauntingly beautiful “Yerushalaim Shel Zahav” (“Jerusalem of Gold) which became one of Israel’s enduringly popular songs. Making its appearance in May of 1967, its expressions of longing to again be privileged to visit the Jewish holy places then held by Jordan, were astonishingly fulfilled in June when Israeli forces re-captured the Old City.

The stories and psalms were enthusiastically greeted by the Spanish-speaking audience, who sometimes waved their arms in rhythm to the music, at other times shouted “hallelujah” in affirmation of the lyrics, and after many performances triumphantly blew shofars. Especially adept at blowing the long “tekiah godol” note was Jose Duran, a baker who is very proud that he knows how to make challah. He said that after joining the Restoration Church and the spirit moved him, he purchased a small shofar, and later on moved to a larger ram’s horn.

When the formal concert was over, hora dancing began, and after a while the ladies of the Beth Am Choir, garbed in white blouses and sparkling blue vests, came down from the stage to join the dancing.

It was truly an international night, in celebration of an internationally loved city.

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com