Neta Elkayam - Singer

Location: Katamon Neighborhood, Jerusalem, Israel

Portrait of a Mizrahi Moroccan Singer

“Moroccan Jews brought this music here; they were writing and composing. And no one knows that…No one considers that as being Israeli or Jewish, because it’s not acceptable in people’s brains that there are Jewish people who can speak Arabic.”-- Neta Elkayem

Meeting Neta Elkayam was one of the highpoints of this summer’s journey. Although a straight shot from Rehavia, it was a very hot one even though I clung to the 3:30- in- the- afternoon- slightly -shaded side of the street. By the time I got to the coolness of Neta’s olive- green living room in her second story apartment, I was drenched from a 45 minute walk ending in her Katamon neighborhood. She greeted me with a glass of water, an offer of Turkish coffee, and “special face wash that would help cool me off quicker.”

Once seated in Neta’s house, I soon forgot my discomfort because of her lively intelligence and articulate ideas not to mention her beautiful voice. While we chatted her musician husband and musical collaborator, Amit Chai Cohen, left to get vegetables and herbs for the fast approaching Tisha B'Av which Neta, a self-styled traditionalist, would be celebrating after the fast. As Neta explained, “When the Muslims end their fasting, we begin ours.”

We chatted about a range of topics but focused mostly on her identity as a Moroccan Jew in Ashkenazi-dominated Israel, and what it means to be Jewish rather than what it means to be Jewish- Israeli or Israeli first and Jewish second. Neta, whose grandparents on both sides came from Morocco, one from Casablanca the other from Tanghir, described what it was like for her to be Mizrahi (Jews from mostly Arab Muslim – majority countries ) growing up first in the Dalet neighborhood of “development “ town , Netivot, south of Beersheva, then in Hatikva neighborhood in Tel Aviv, and currently in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem where she hopes to remain. Her educational experiences in religious schools surrounded by immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia and her close relationship with her Grandmother Ganina, who spoke Moroccan Arabic to her, made her acutely aware of the diversity that is Israel. Neta’s experience is far more than the one of two narratives that most Americans know: the one of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians.

Neta taught herself Arabic and after her first trip to Morocco, she realized “Jews are a lot more than the Zionism of the last 60 years – one cannot just turn all the Jews into Zionist-Israelis. There are people whose religion is Judaism and whose identity is Moroccan. On the day that I arrived in Morocco, I was asked about who and what I am. I naturally answered “Ana bint dal el-Yahud el-Maghreb” – I am the daughter of Moroccan Jews. Even today I identify this way.”

Although growing up Neta performed Rita, an Iranian born Israeli pop singer and Whitney Houston; sang in a choir, led by her Russian immigrant teacher, Marina; and later learned classical guitar from an Indian teacher, her musical career is a recent phenomenon. Up until now, she has been first and foremost a visual artist and art teacher. Recently, she, Amit Chai Cohen and several other musicians, as part of the part of the Jerusalem Season of Culture, hosted a kitchen concert for 50 in their home. They sold tickets on the internet, recorded the concert, and put it on YouTube. .

Below are the fascinating videos of my visit with Neta; make sure you don’t miss Neta singing on the fourth video.