Mahler goes square in Tel Aviv
OrchestrasIn my 2010 book Why Mahler? I complained that there was no street in Israel named after Gustav Mahler. When I inquired at the time, I was informed that this was because he had converted to Christianity and had ruled himself out for commemmoration in the Jewish state.
That was then.
Now, my Israeli publisher Shmuel Rosner has discovered a square named for Mahler in the country’s fast-growing multicultural metropolis.
Mazel tov
Auf der Straße stand ein Lindenbaum?
Mahler Square in Ramat Aviv, Tel-Aviv is part of a beautiful residential area with tree-lined streets named in 2007 at a big ceremony in Tel Aviv where I was present to receive the Arthur Rubinstein Street plaque from the mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai. I brought back the Mahler one to give to his great granddaughter Sasha Havlicek. You can see the David Oistrakh Street on your map and in the same area you have Jascha Heifetz Street, Ernest Bloch Square, Arnold Schönberg Street, Marc Chagall Street, Jacques Offenbach Street, Dimitry Shostakovich Street, Isaac Bashevis Singer Street. I have visited the area several times and would love to live there myself – on Arthur Rubinstein Street…
Very informative. Thanks. If they addressed the second tier of Jewish musicians in history, it would be a big city.
And they’ve solved the problem of squaring the circle to boot.
Ok, he was not religious. He converted to have a career. He NEVER went to church to pray. He was a humanist, pantheistic and spiritual guy. There are a lot of Jews like that nowadays.
Sounds like a lot of my Jewish friends at University who enthusiastically celebrated Christmas, ate bacon and sausages and roast pork and were generally secular in outlook. They also observed the High Holidays and the appropriate fasts and were generally respectful to their religious friends and to those of other faiths. One or two attended Mass with me occasionally, I’m sure out of curiosity, aesthetic interest or simple friendship. Thanks to them I attended Temple and was guest at the odd seder. I also discovered how to sit shiva with friends — to take food, not flowers, and the general deportment of the occasion.
I think we all learned a lot.
More worthy of an international airport like Chopin. But this is a good start.
How about a Hermann Levi square?
About five years ago I visited the Jewish Museum in Munich. In a large room downstairs there was an exhibition of books, posters etc. relating to a wide range of Central European Jewish artists and writers. Looking around I began to ask myself where my favourite Ashkenazi genius was. And then it occurred to me: ah, that’s why. I was disappointed, but it is not for me to decide whom a Jewish museum should choose to honour.