Thousands attend Hebron Passover Music Festival – Watch

The City of the Patriarchs was a popular spot with over 60,000 people visiting the city during the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover.

Guided tours  and educational and fun activities for the whole family took place, topped off by the annual music concert and the musical prayer gathering the next day.

The recently opened Tel Hevron archaeological park and the Hebron visitors center including the “Touching Eternity” 4D movie were open for tourists.

 

Thousands attended the concert which featured popular Israel musicians Haim Israel, Bini Landau, Itzik Dadya, Uzia Tzadok, Naftali Kempeh, The Kinderlach and more, just outside the ancient Tomb of Machpela complex.

 

The Cave of the Patriarchs was reserved for Jewish prayer services and the Hall of Isaac and Rebecca was filled to capacity for a musical Shaharit morning prayer gathering that included musical instruments, singing and dancing led by Chief Rabbi of Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, son of the revered late Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.

 

 

This hall, the largest in the 2,000-year-old Herodian structure, is only open for Jewish public access ten days a year. It includes the memorial cenotaphs for the Biblical Isaac and Rebecca and the small well-like hole which leads into the underground burial chambers. Visitors who place their face or hand over the opening can feel back-draft from the underground double cave.

Public figures who spoke at the gathering included Knesset Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Deputy Minister Eli Ben Dahan, Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich, MK Moti Yogev and others.

 

Ben-Dahan called for, “a government that with God’s help will show the world that there is no difference between Hebron and Beersheba. Hebron is what connects Jerusalem to Beersheba. Here in Hebron the nation of Israel connects to its roots.”

 

Smotrich called for an increase in permits to allows the Jewish community to grow. “Hebron is a large city,” he stated. “There is a lot of space here for many Jews to redeem this city, which will allow us to draw strength from the strong connection to the city of our forefathers,” he said. Currently there is a greater demand than supply of homes in the Jewish neighborhoods, with bureaucratic and political issues at hand.

The general manager of the Jewish community of Hebron Uri Karzen thanked the police and security services who maintained order and Oded Plus, director general of the Ministry of Religious Services who helped coordinate the event. He noted the eternal connection of the Jewish people to the city of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs which connects and unifies the people of Israel in all its diversity.

 

A special thank you to all the staff who worked so diligently to once again make this holiday a memorable experience for all.

 

See you for Succot when we will do it again!

 

 

* Politicians call for tripling number of Hebron Jews

* Thousands celebrate Passover in Hevron

* 25,000 attend Hebron Passover festival

* Tens of thousands of Jews to visit Hevron on Chol Hamoed Pesach

* Thousands sing and dance for Hallel at Cave of the Patriarchs