Will fans say ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ to Beatles-themed tour of Israel?
The Beatles did not seem to harbor any hard feelings toward the Jewish state, since Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr ignored calls by activists to boycott Israel and performed here in recent years.
By HANNAH BROWNPAUL MCCARTNEY walks toward photographers in Tel Aviv in 2008 ahead of his show at Hayarkon Park.(photo credit: GIL COHEN MAGEN/REUTERS)
There are many specialized tours of Israel, but the new proposed Magical “Mystical” Tour: A Musical Tour for Beatles Fans, may be the one that makes Beatle-maniacs all over the world come together to twist and shout with joy, although some naysayers caution that it’s just a gimmick.Any tour announcement is ambitious in these days of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions, but the organizers of the Kosher Club Beatles tour of Israel are taking a cue from the song “We Can Work It Out,” and sent out a press release announcing the tour, even though it may be a long and winding road that will extend way past the proposed February 7, 2021, date.The attractions on this tour, which is being run by Charles F. Rosenay of the Connecticut-based Club Kosher, will include the usual Holy Land sites such as the Western Wall and the Dead Sea, but will also feature places and people of special interest to Beatles fans, such as the John Lennon Peace Forest in Safed, sites of the canceled Beatles concert, and the venues where Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr actually performed, as well as musical events at the Yellow Submarine bar in Tel Aviv and the Beatles Dance Club in Eilat, and a performance by an Israeli Beatles cover band.Participants will also get to meet members of the Israel Beatles Fan Club, and Rosenay promises to let them in on the inside story of why the Fab Four never made it to Israel on their 1965 tour, in spite of the fact that a concert was scheduled.“The legendary non-concert of The Beatles in Israel has always intrigued me, and being a Jewish Beatles fan... I am combining my love of visiting Israel with my love of The Beatles,” he said via email.These days, most Israelis are thrilled to have international artists perform in Israel, but back in the 1960s, a strange set of circumstances led to the cancellation of The Beatles concert. There are many explanations for this shadow on Israeli cultural history, and the most common is that there was a dispute between rival promoters that involved problems with getting foreign currency to pay the lads from Liverpool, and also that many politicians truly feared that The Beatles would cause unruly behavior among Israeli youth.Eventually, the Education Ministry did not grant permission for the concert, stating in a resolution, “Resolved: Not to allow the request for fear that the performances by The Beatles are liable to have a negative influence on the youth.”Israel later formally apologized to The Beatles in 2008, when then-Israeli ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor presented a letter to John Lennon’s sister, Julia Baird, at the Beatles Museum in Liverpool, expressing regret.While The Beatles tour of Israel may sound like fun to some, to one ardent Israeli Beatles lover and music historian/radio presenter, Yoav Kutner, the very idea of this tour is “ridiculous. It’s nonsense.... This is one of the countries that has the least connection to The Beatles since it’s one of the few places they never performed. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney performed here, but as solo acts, nothing to do with The Beatles.”The image of a ticket to the canceled Beatles concert in Ramat Gan, with Hebrew writing and a price of 20 liras that Club Kosher included in its email is “fake news... it’s been around for years but it’s not real.”The closest The Beatles got to Israel, according to Kutner, was in 1969 when Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, were promoting peace in Amsterdam and were interviewed by Israeli journalist/politician/songwriter Akiva Nof.Nof asked if Lennon knew any songs in Hebrew and Lennon sang the chorus of “Hava Nagila.” Nof then wrote down the lyrics of a song he had written about Jerusalem in a phonetic transcription, and Lennon sang the lines so well that you would think he was fluent in Hebrew. An audio recording of the performance can be found on YouTube.Whether Jewish Beatles fans will respond as critically as Kutner, or whether they will embrace the idea of having fun with like-minded tourists in Israel remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: The Beatles did not seem to harbor any hard feelings toward the Jewish state, since Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr ignored calls by activists to boycott Israel and performed here in recent years. And anyway, two out of Sir Paul’s three wives have been Jewish.
