x-posted to KFAR
Chava Alberstein, one of Israel’s iconic folk singers, released a new album this week, “Baruch Haba.” best known for her Hebrew songs, Alberstein broke the Israeli taboo on Yiddish music when she recorded an album with the Klezmatics.
On this latest album, she’s crossed the language barrier again, performing “Had Gad Ya” in Hebrew and Arabic with an all-women’s choir from diverse Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood. The Shirana choir is composed of Jewish, Muslim and Christian women and performs in Hebrew, Arabic and Greek.
The Jerusalem Post reports:

AJCC is a community center in Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood that boasts over 3,000 members from all three religions. The programs run at the center focus on coexistence and fostering dialogue and understanding among Jews and Arabs. Shirana is Israel’s only all-female choir featuring women from all three religions.
Idan Toledano, Shirana’s musical director, said he reached out to contact Alberstein, sending the disc of Shirana singing “Had Gadya” to a friend who plays with the famous folksinger.
Toledano, who also plays instruments and does vocal arrangements for Shirana, said that performing with Alberstein was a “huge honor and a great joy.”
Toledano said he sees the choir and the projects launched by the AJCC as bigger than just a forum for artistic expression, saying, “this is probably the only place in Israel where, through music and art, you have the ability to bring together people who live in the same neighborhood and have probably never spoken with one another.
“With music it just happens, people come together, and perform together, it just happens naturally. I think it’s a small example of how things need to be all over Israel,” Toledano said.