As part of the "And here she stays" project, Alma Zohar talks about the hidden rivalry between her father, Yankele Rotblit, and Meir Ariel, and regrets that he did not receive enough treatment in his life

• Alma Zohar in the project "And here you stay"

  Photo: 

  Michael Topiol, Coco

The project "And Here It Stays" was uploaded last week to the "Israel Today" website in collaboration with BPM College and the "Anana" company, and includes a renewed performance of his songs by Meir Ariel, who turned 21 on Saturday. Today (Monday) a novelty song "Summer Seeds" performed by Alma Zohar and Aviv Bachar is uploaded to the site.

The song "Summer Seeds" was released in 1993 as part of an album of the same name - Ariel's fourth album. "In the original performance the song is bluesy and heavy, while in the new arrangement we did it to the beat of the bosnova and jazz," says Zohar, "we went all the way with the summer sweetness of the song." 

According to her, "Summer Seeds" is not a typical "Meir Arieli" song. "For Meir, there is always duality. When there is joy, there is also sorrow. Falling in love comes with heartbreak. Longing for good comes with evil. But in 'Summer Seeds' there is only sweetness, joy and calm," she says. "A kind of moment like this that he allowed himself to feel without cynicism. It's a very Israeli song."

Zohar also says that the song evokes in her a longing for the first fragrance of summer, "a sensory memory that brings me back to childhood, to the first day of summer that we go to the sea. 'Summer is coming, summer is strong', a shining title. Of towards ".

Zohar's stepfather, Yankele Rotblit, had a complex relationship with Meir Ariel. "There was an appreciation mixed between them in covert rivalry, but in a positive section," she says. "There was a feeling that they were running on the same track, looking over their shoulder to see what the other was doing. Meir and Yankele's songs have agendas with a prophetic tendency."

Did you meet Meir Ariel?

"No. He is embedded in the experiences of my life even though I have never met him. I may have seen him at some show but I was too young to remember and appreciate, but when I teach his songs, I imagine like we once sat in some eternity and talked all night."

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21 years after his death, what do you have to say about him?

"It is very unfortunate for me that we did not know how to embrace Meir in his life. If only he would receive a thousand of the treatment he receives after his death. He so wanted them to listen to him - and it never happened in his life. "How great you are. I think everyone can enjoy Meir Ariel's songs. It has a quality that anyone can connect to."