Ray Charles and David Ben-Gurion Singing Hava Nagila!

In August of 1973, Ray Charles came to Israel on a performance tour.

Here’s what he said about it…

“Even though I’m not Jewish, and even though I’m stingy with my bread, Israel is one of the few causes I feel good about supporting. Blacks and Jews are hooked up and bound together by a common history of persecution. If someone besides a black ever sings the real gut bucket blues, it’ll be a Jew. We both know what it’s like to be someone else’s footstool.”

While he was here, Ray had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with David Ben-Gurion – Israel’s first Prime Minister. Although it’s not “gut bucket blues,” here’s a quick video of Ray singing “Hava Nagaila with the 87 year old Ben-Gurion.

As for the connection with Yavne’el and the Galilee…  The 19-year-old David Grun (Ben-Gurion) arrived in Israel in 1906 from Poland. After spending some time in Tel Aviv, he decided to attempt becoming a farmer and moved to a farm training center at Sejera in the Galilee in 1907. In addition to studying agriculture with the other trainees, Ben-Gurion led daily classes to teach the others Hebrew.

In his memoirs Ben-Gurion described an incident where he was attacked on the road from Sejera to Yavne’el by an Arab shepherd who struggled with him and tried to take his Browning pistol. The robber got away with the basket containing Ben-Gurion’s few possessions, but not the pistol.

The future Prime Minister failed miserably at farming and left Sejera and subsequently tried farming in Yavne’el (Galilee Green headquarters) which didn’t turn out too well either. He left Yavne’el after six months to begin his life-long journey in politics.