{"id":1887,"date":"2014-04-18T00:09:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T07:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2014-04-27T13:48:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T20:48:24","slug":"hagit-yaso-headlines-local-yom-haatzmaut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/04\/18\/hagit-yaso-headlines-local-yom-haatzmaut\/","title":{"rendered":"Hagit Yaso headlines local Yom Ha\u2019atzmaut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hagit Yaso, the 2011 Kochav Nolad<\/em> winner, will sing in Vancouver on May 5 at the Chan Centre in celebration of Israel’s 66th birthday. (photo from\u00a0hagityaso.co.il<\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

One July night in 2011, on a crowded Haifa beach, the 21-year-old singer Hagit Yaso became that year\u2019s winner of Kochav Nolad<\/em> (A Star is Born<\/em>), Israel\u2019s version of American Idol. The outsider had triumphed. \u201cIt was the most exciting and most life-changing experience I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she told the Independent by telephone from her home in Sderot.<\/p>\n

Yaso is a fully qualified outsider. She is working-class, the child of Ethiopian refugees and a resident of the missile-and-mortar target town of Sderot. Only one kilometre from the Gaza Strip, Sderot is the target of frequent rocket assaults. A small town of only 20,000 people, everyone, she said, knows everyone. \u201cIt\u2019s a small town. You get to know the people,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I got a lot of support when I was on Kochav Nolad<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now 24, Yaso has toured the world and released her first CD, a self-titled CD that is available at cdbaby.com and at amazon.com. Vancouver audiences will get a chance to see her May 5 when she headlines the community Yom Ha\u2019atzmaut celebration at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia. The event\u2019s main presenter, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, can take some pride in Yaso\u2019s success. A scholarship from the Canadian Federations provided her voice lessons at Sderot\u2019s Music Centre and the Vancouver Federation itself has taken a special interest in helping Sderot\u2019s Ethiopian community. Federation also provides assistance to Sderot\u2019s trauma victims.<\/p>\n

The three months she spent on the television competition were grueling, Yaso said. \u2018\u201cThe competition is very long, very confusing, with a lot of pressure and media.\u201d She always believed she would win, though.<\/p>\n

Her friend, the American filmmaker Laura Bialis, who lives in Tel Aviv, noted by phone that Yaso\u2019s determination is one secret to her success. \u201cYou know, it was like everything she set out to do, she did,\u201d Bialis said. \u201cShe wanted to get into the army band, she got into the army band. She wanted to get on Kochav Nolad<\/em>, she got on Kochav Nolad<\/em>. She wanted to win Kochav Nolad<\/em>, she won.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two met when Bialis was shooting a documentary about music in Sderot. That film, Sderot: Rock in the Red Zone<\/em>, is now in its final editing stage.<\/p>\n

Yaso\u2019s success is a point of pride for Sderot. Her win is also significant to Israelis of Ethiopian heritage. Vancouver resident Ronit Reda-Yona, an Ethiopian Israeli, said Yaso\u2019s 2011 win \u201cwas an exciting moment for the Israeli society and especially for the Ethiopian community. Everyone in Israel who is Ethiopian feels like me: this is a good model for young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is Yaso well known in Israel but, in a short time, she has become an international success. She has performed at Jewish events in Paris, London, Canadian cities, American cities and Ethiopia. After Vancouver, she will tour Brazil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is really amazing is that her career has taken off internationally in a really interesting way,\u201d said Bialis. \u201cShe\u2019s got this amazing voice, she\u2019s gorgeous, she\u2019s gracious, she\u2019s sweet, and she has an amazing story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankful for parents\u2019 courageous journey<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yaso\u2019s parents, Yeshayahu and Tova, grew up and got married in rural Ethiopia. \u201cThey got married by shiddach<\/em>,\u201d said Yaso, who explained that the marriage was arranged and the two did not meet until their wedding day. In the early 1990s, the couple was forced to leave home. \u201cBecause they were Jewish, they suffered a lot and they had to run away from there and the option was to come to Israel,\u201d Yaso explained.<\/p>\n

Tremendous hardship stood between them and that destination. \u201cThey walked 400 kilometres by foot,\u201d she said with some pride and awe in her voice. \u201cIt took them two and a half months to walk because it\u2019s through the desert. They had to walk only at night and hide during the day because they were not supposed to leave [Ethiopia], and they were afraid…. They had to hide during the day because they were afraid of being caught.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yaso\u2019s parents finally crossed the border into Sudan and were airlifted to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had nothing when they came here,\u201d she said. Her parents built a life and a family of five children, in the small town where they still live. That home remains her home, too.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver performance will include four songs she performed on Kochav Nolad<\/em>. Yaso will sing in English, Hebrew, Moroccan Arabic and Amharic, the language of Ethiopia. The four-piece band that accompanies her is a group with whom she served in Israel\u2019s army band. All three backup singers are from her hometown, including her sister, Shlomit.<\/p>\n

Both of Yaso\u2019s sisters performed with the town\u2019s youth music ensemble. Many of Sderot\u2019s young people dream of music careers. The ubiquitous bomb shelters sometimes double as rehearsal spaces. Perhaps this love of music helps soften a hard life that includes regular bombardment. When the air raid warning sounds you have 15 seconds to find shelter. Drills are constant, so life itself is always uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a city that suffers a lot from what\u2019s going on in the south, from bombing and stuff,\u201d said Yaso. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to live there. I manage by being optimistic, smiling and, when it gets harder, I sing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Yaso, performances at the community celebration of Israel\u2019s 66th birthday at the Chan Centre will include the JCC Festival Ha\u2019Rikud Dancers and a musical tribute written by Jonathan Berkowitz and Heather Glassman Berkowitz.<\/p>\n

Michael Groberman <\/strong>is a Vancouver freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hagit Yaso, the 2011 Kochav Nolad winner, will sing in Vancouver on May 5 at the Chan Centre in celebration of Israel’s 66th birthday. (photo from\u00a0hagityaso.co.il) One July night in 2011, on a crowded Haifa beach, the 21-year-old singer Hagit Yaso became that year\u2019s winner of Kochav Nolad (A Star is Born), Israel\u2019s version of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[761,764,759,760,4352,758,765,767,766,762],"class_list":["post-1887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-chan-centre","tag-hagit-yaso","tag-heather-glassman-berkowitz","tag-jcc-festival-harikud-dancers","tag-jewish-federation-of-greater-vancouver","tag-jonathan-berkowitz","tag-kochav-nolad","tag-laura-bialis","tag-sderot-rock-in-the-red-zone","tag-yom-haatzmaut"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}