For over 40 years, Gideon Shamir, 82, was the one organ builder in Israel. He looked for an apprentice to whom he might move on his legacy and data, however by no means discovered anybody with the endurance to do the work.
Then, in June 2021, Shamir took theater director and playwright Uri Shani, 55, below his wing.
"Uri handed the check with flying colours," Shamir mentioned. "He grasps what I am making an attempt to show, he has good palms and musical ears."
On February 14, the day I visited Ugavim, Shamir's organ-building workshop and recital area in Yuvalim, within the Galilee hills, the 2 males signed a proper settlement. The enterprise is now within the youthful man's palms.
Ugavim's massive, high-ceilinged workshop is full of metallic and picket organ pipes that soar upward like mountain peaks.
Earlier than my go to, I knew little or no about this musical instrument. I had no thought in regards to the wealthy historical past of Jewish organ music.
Shamir factors out that the organ is first talked about to start with of the Bible. Genesis 4:21 introduces Yuval, "the daddy of all who play the harp and the pipe — kinor v'ugav. How becoming that Ugavim (Pipes) is positioned in Yuvalim.
"There was an organ within the Temple in Jerusalem and few individuals know there was even an organ within the Nice Synagogue in Baghdad," Shamir says.
An organ is taken into account the earliest keyboard instrument however works equally to woodwind devices as a result of the organist blows air by a hole pipe into bellows that produce sounds.
"You want a gentle wind provide," Shamir defined.
Within the early 1800s, Reform Jews in Germany launched organs into synagogues. For the subsequent hundred years, Jews created liturgical organ music.
Right this moment, Shani mentioned, there are about 50 organs in Israel, principally in church buildings in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth. Within the Nineteen Nineties, Shamir constructed a pipe organ for the Hecht Auditorium in Haifa College. He calls it "the venture of a lifetime."
Fantasy and creativeness
In his twenties, Shamir studied piano on the Royal Faculty of Music in London and received the Queen's Prize for piano. He then studied organ constructing in Germany.
As a result of organs are made principally of wooden, they're affected by local weather and humidity, and want upkeep and tuning. (Tuning, Shamir mentioned, is a two-man job.) Shamir makes home calls to revive previous organs or to repair damaged organs.
"Giving an organ new life could be very gratifying," he mentioned.
Shamir, the elder of the 2 males, is tall and generally stern whereas Shani is extra playful. Working intently collectively for nearly a 12 months, they disagree at instances, joke lots, and sometimes end one another's sentences.
To construct an organ, Shamir instructed me, "You want lots of fantasy and creativeness."
"It's important to use chemistry, physics, music and math," Shani added.
"Much less chemistry," Shamir corrected gently. "However you need to calculate."
"There's carpentry, in fact," Shani mentioned.
"And metallic and woodworking," Shamir added, mentioning that it is a very exact science. A distinction in .5 millimeters "might trigger hassle."
At that second, their lawyer, Yuval Turgeman, walked in with their settlement. The 2 males signed the papers in moments, with out even sitting down.
"How do you suppose they will do?" I requested the lawyer.
"They each have good intentions," Turgeman mentioned. He then turned to Shani and added, "It is in your shoulders now."
"I do know I am getting into very massive sneakers," Shani admits. "I am not a child. I am 55. I do know I am taking a giant threat. I see that that is onerous work, however I wish to work onerous."
He added that everybody who hears about his endeavor with Shamir thinks it is a wonderful match.
Organ-ized
On a tour of the workshop, Shamir and Shani confirmed me a voice machine which, Shamir mentioned, is the "testing pad" for bellows and pipes. Each organ builder has to have one.
"If he waits to check the organ in church, will probably be too late," Shamir mentioned.
"Oy vey," Shani mentioned.
"Oy vey is correct," Shamir mentioned.
I adopted them into the small carpentry area crowded with dozens of instruments. Shani mentioned that when he labored in theater, he made costumes and set designs, and he likes wood-working. When he first got here right here, nonetheless, he needed to clear up the place and arrange it.
"Organ-ize it?" I repeated, smiling.
He laughed. "I by no means considered that."
Shamir then defined that Shani, who was born in Switzerland, "could be very Swiss and likes issues to be so as, not like me."
"However Gideon's work is super-accurate," Shani mentioned.
"And if Uri places issues so as, I am unable to discover them," Shamir joked.
The final synagogue organ in Germany
Again in the primary workshop area, Shamir turned to me and gestured to 2 pictures of the identical synagogue in Germany. The earlier than and after. Earlier than Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, when Nazis torched Jewish companies, colleges and synagogues, and afterward when the synagogue was in ruins.
Shamir was born precisely one 12 months later, in Israel. His father had been a business artist in Berlin who left for Israel in 1934, the 12 months after Hitler got here to energy.
Subsequent to the pictures of the synagogue is one in all an organ that had been contained in the synagogue. Of the tons of of synagogue organs in Germany, solely this one survived — as a result of the synagogue had bought it to a church in 1925. Shamir found it within the Nineteen Nineties.
With Shani's assist, Shamir hopes to carry the organ to Israel and restore it to its authentic situation. Its pipes had been reduce as a result of church music is totally different.
"There are totally different sounds," he defined. "The synagogue organ music mingles higher with free singing and a cantor and choir. It is extra mellow."
Shani's great-great-grandfather, Jacob Sarasohn, was the chief cantor in a synagogue in a city in Prussia (now in Poland). Sarasohn composed liturgical music and his daughter (Shani's great-grandmother) was a part of the women' choir within the synagogue, which was destroyed within the Holocaust.
Shani, who has performed piano since he was seven years previous and has began to play the organ, has been looking for a few of Sarasohn's music compositions.
"We had this unbelievable tradition of organ music in Judaism and we misplaced it," Shani mentioned. "It is a part of Jewish custom."
Shamir additionally desires to revive the wealthy custom of synagogue organ music. Though enjoying musical devices is prohibited on the Sabbath in Orthodox follow, the organ might be performed on different holidays, like Hanukkah, and at weddings.
"Folks can write new liturgy and carry out new music," Shamir instructed.
Time to get to work
I requested every man what he needed to say to the opposite in the beginning of their formalized settlement.
"Uri, I am not leaving you by yourself," Shamir mentioned. "I would like you to succeed. I would like you to be pleased so I may be pleased. I wish to have my very own time. I've had sufficient."
"I am saying thanks, a giant thanks, for selecting me," Shani instructed him.
"Do not be too sentimental," Shamir mentioned. "Now we now have to roll up our sleeves and get to work."
Ugavim holds organ recitals and workshops, together with a workshop for youngsters the place they are going to construct their very own organs out of kits.
This story was offered to Newsweek by Zenger Information.
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