Kiryat Shmona musician Ben Golan will perform at the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations in Vancouver April 21. (photo from Ben Golan)
“Music for me is a way to say: we are still here, still alive, still building a future. It gives people a place to feel, and also the strength to keep going,” said Ben Golan, who will headline our local celebration of Israel’s 78th Independence Day, on April 21.
Golan is a musician and producer from Kiryat Shmona, a city in our community’s partnership region, the Upper Galilee, in Israel. He is the founder of the initiative Patifon.
“For 17 years,” he said, “I’ve been producing music and running a recording studio in the city. Over time, I realized that my work isn’t just about producing songs. It’s about building something that can sustain a real musical community in the north, giving a stage to local creators and creating a movement that feels connected to this place.”
Patifon, which means record player or turntable in Hebrew, serves as a hub for local artists.
“It all started simply, with jam sessions in the studio,” explained Golan. “People began coming to play, sing, meet and connect. Slowly, it grew, until the gatherings were too big for the studio to handle. There wasn’t enough space, but there was a hunger for music. Then, thanks to the youth centre and the amazing Elad Kozikaro, who gave us a budget and the perfect space, we got a shelter, which, in times like these, is a valuable commodity in the north. We moved in, completely renovated it and turned it into the most beautiful music lounge; a place where you can come and feel at home, even if it’s your first time there.”
The lounge morphed into Patifon.
“We started filming live sessions of artists and bands there, with proper sound and respect for the music,” Golan said. “All the sessions were uploaded to YouTube under Patifon and, over time, it started to catch on and reach more and more people. Suddenly, what began as a small local gathering became a stage watched by people outside the north.
“As the audience grew and we realized this needed more breathing room, we opened a community pub. Students from Tel-Hai College volunteer there as part of a scholarship program and help keep the place alive and running.”
For Golan, Kiryat Shmona is not just where he was born and grew up. He calls the city and the Upper Galilee his “inner language.”
“In this city, I learned what the rhythm of a community really is: people who know each other, who will always help you when you need something. There’s a different kind of air here,” he said.
“I have a stream right by my house. It seeped into my music without me even intending it to – a mix of rough and tender, of truth and esthetics, of wanting to shout and needing a moment of quiet to breathe,” he explained. “The nature here, the open space and the distance from the centre taught me how to really listen – not to the noise, but to what lies underneath it.
“Continuing to create in the north, especially after Oct. 7, is not a romantic choice for me – it’s a stance,” he said. “The region went through a real upheaval: fear, evacuation, uncertainty and, also, a kind of pain that people who don’t live here sometimes don’t fully understand. Out of all of that, creativity becomes a tool for connection and healing.”
Golan chose to stay in Kiryat Shmona out of a sense of mission.
“I believe the periphery holds immense talent, real hunger and stories you can’t fake – it just needs infrastructure, a home and support,” he said. “I want the young people and artists here to feel that they don’t have to leave in order to become something. On the contrary – that this place itself can become a source of inspiration, an opportunity and a creative centre that generates culture rather than just consumes it.”
Coming to Vancouver for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Golan said he brings messages of resilience and hope – and he takes those words seriously.
“Independence, for me, is also the ability to choose to create despite the difficulty, to choose community, to choose light,” he said. “I want to bring the story of the north: people who continue to build, to organize events, to create music and to hold each other up even when reality is complicated. In my music, there is room for both joy and pain, because both are part of our lives – especially in this time.”
On April 21, Vancouver band HaOptziot will also take the stage at the community celebrations, playing covers of various Israeli hits.
For tickets ($36/adult, $12/youth, $75/family pack) to the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations, go to jewishvancouver.com/yh2026.