The Selior, Chief CantorFrom the Israeli army, the Chanuka Concert Foundation was programmed by the Foundation to sing in December at the annual concert around the Jewish Lichtjesfeest. This is to the great discontent of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, which rents a room to the foundation for this occasion.
In a package leaflet at the ticket sales for the Chanuka Concert 2025, on the website of the Concertgebouw, it states that the management has made an urgent request to the foundation to program a singer other than Shai Abramson ‘given the fact that he as Chief Cantor plays a prominent role in the Israeli army (IDF) “. It also says that the Concertgebouw is ‘in conversation’ with the foundation.
But the consultation will not change the foundation, says David Serphos, board member and spokesperson. He is surprised by the public distantization by the Concertgebouw. “If Shai Abramson actually served in the IDF at the moment, the statement would in any case have actually been correct. But ‘Chief Cantor’ is not a formal title,” he says. “There has been no relationship of authority. Shai has been employed in the past. He still wears the honorary title ‘Chief Cantor’ and is asked by the state of Israel for memorial ceremonies. Of course that is often with the army. We see nothing negative in it.”
Heavily loaded subject
The most important global organization of genocide researchers this week found that the Israeli army is currently committing genocide on the population of Gaza. Serphos then says that “there is a group of scientists who agree. But that’s not how it works with such a heavily loaded subject.”
The sensitivity in the Netherlands around the IDF has not escaped Serphos. “You can construct it as you want, but it has not been a consideration. Our audience has no trouble with Shai, nor with the IDF. The label of the IDF today calls a lot of hatred. If you want to stick that on it, it is not strange that the haters think about it.”
Abramson served in the army until 2017 and is a reservist. He affects himself on the site of his company as ‘Chief Cantor of the IDF’ and often performs in uniform. Serphos says that Abramson was indeed announced in 2022 when he also performed in the Concertgebouw. “But we now call him the Israeli Chief Cantor. The point is that he is not working at the IDF and that this is not a formal title.”
According to Serphos, the Concertgebouw has known “for months” who is coming to perform. On Monday, the Concertgebouw made its objections known, he says, but the package leaflet at the ticket sales “was not consulted with us”.
Regret
Last year the Chanuka Concert was held in the Tropenmuseum. Then guests were brought by bus to this unknown location. In the aftermath of the mistreatment of Israeli supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the city a month earlier did not dare to get into taxis a month earlier, chairman David Simon said in conversation with Jonet, a website for Jewish news.
In May last year, the Concertgebouw announced that it would move two performances by the Jerusalem Quartet. This was at the time of severe Pro-Palestina protests around the University of Amsterdam, in which millions of destruction were caused. Concertenbouw director Simon Reinink could not guarantee the safety of visitors and the Jerusalem Quartet.
Later he expressed regret about that. Afterwards he found that the Concertgebouw “passed too quickly” to the history of Jews in Amsterdam in the Second War, he said in the radio program Panorama Sunday (KRO-NCRV) on NPO Classic. One of the concerts eventually continued as planned.
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