When was the last time you got excited?
"At my children's weddings and when my grandchildren were born. I have five children and three grandchildren, my daughters are married and my sons are not married yet. All my children are very musical, but I did not want them to go out as musicians. No singers and no musicians. Music is a difficult field that you fade into, it happens to a lot of artists. Artists have validity, just like football players.
So apart from my eldest daughter (my mother), who studied at Rimon and was in the music business, the others are not there at all, and she too, since she is a mother, has left music.
My eldest son, Ben Caesar, is a network star.
In the military, he was a photographer and opened a YouTube channel, and is a ticking star.
Yuval, the youngest son, is studying at the university. "
When was the last time you met your grandchildren?
"All the time. I'm an active grandfather. Going to the garden, collecting from kindergarten, it's my pleasure. The little one happily ran to me, and my great grandson already knows how to ask me to take him to the kiosk and not tell mom. I became a grandfather at 65 for the first time, and I waited for it. The grandchildren are love "Great. You don't give them instructions or educators, just fun and treats. I was a very busy father and spent less time with the kids, like all the artists. The grandchildren are a different, pure love."
When was the last time you got upset?
"It annoys me when the two peoples are many. The world was created two billion years ago, and there have always been conflicts, since Cain and Abel. In Cyprus there was a conflict between Turks and Cypriots, there were fierce battles, they killed each other until a wise man came and said 'here is Turkish Cyprus and here is Cyprus The second. "I'm not very optimistic, not at all."
When was the last time you were in the studio?
"The recording studios have different music today. It's not what it was in my generation, and I was not in the studio for a long time. I miss it, but my generation is not wanted. I worked with Shimi Tavori, Haim Moshe, Avner Gadsi, with whom I performed, and we are part of my career. Behind us.They recorded a lot of songs, even songs they did not play.Today new broadcasters are young, they did not grow up on the older generation and do not know him, and even if a young broadcaster hears a new song of one of them, it does him no good.
"You may worry that there is not enough space for everyone, but I think you can give two hours a day to old-fashioned Israeli music. I understand that this is the case and I am not angry. I understand the introduction and accept. We, 'Sounds of the Oud' "We disabled our predecessors. That's how it works and has always worked."
When was the last time you showed up?
"This week. I performed at the 'Ilka' bar in Dizengoff, where the attack took place. I also performed there a week before the attack. A tribute to the "Sounds of the Vineyard" in Tel Aviv. "
When was the last time you bought a hat?
"Friends bring me hats. The hat I're wearing now a friend brought me from Jericho. I do not like gifts, but I respect him so I took, and then he asks me, 'Well, you wear the hat I brought you? Why do not you wear?'
"So here, I show him yes. I even came to interview him."
When was the last time you thought of your name?
"Every time the Yemeni abduction affair comes up, I remember that on the birth certificate I am Michael. They changed my name so they would not know it was me, and that's how they protected me. My mother, Batya, said I died, and told everyone to say I died.
"I was born in 1953 in a home birth. The mothers were warned to take babies, the neighbor took a son and a daughter and did not return them. My mother used to clean Ashkenazi apartments and saw in one of the apartments a child, a black baby, a white couple, Holocaust survivors. At home, because she was told not to go to the hospital because after the birth the mother is fuzzy and you can tell her that the baby is dead. Many believed that the babies died for them. This is a method that worked, that's how it was. There was silence.
"At the age of seven months, my mother was afraid of the name Michael, so she said they would call me Yehuda. I did not know I was Michael until the draft order came. I went to kindergarten as Yehuda, and to school as Yehuda. Only in recruitment, when they called Michael Caesar, ? '
Then my mother told me why she changed me there, because she was afraid they would take me. "
When was the last time you missed?
"Every now and then I miss my grandmother, Naomi. She was an interesting woman. She was a pioneer, cleaned Ashkenazi apartments in Lillenblum and also worked in falafel with Joash Bezabotinsky in Tel Aviv. She came from a family of merchants who sold arak to the Turks. She liked to work and not get bored, And so am I.
"A nice time I miss is our success, of the band. I was 20. We had performances from morning to night. In the morning we would perform at Brit, at noon while Brit, at five or six we were at the wedding, and from there continue to the club. Four or five performances a day. I was. "I come home at two or three in the morning calm, because I had something to do. I slept for three hours and got up for another day of work. Today I no longer have it."
When was the last time you were scared?
"Not many things scare me. Missiles don't scare me, nor does the Corona scare me, and on the road I can never be upset, I drive at a constant low speed. But I fear for health, like everyone else. I'm completely vegan, from my youth. In the house I grew up in. It had a garden, and we would pick carrots, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, coriander from it. Pick and eat. We had tangerine trees and ate a lot of fruit. We ate meat soup only on Fridays. Today we eat legumes and vegetables, without dairy products, which is really forbidden and unhealthy. "I lack nothing, no steaks and no other meat."
When was the last time you went to the doctor?
"I did not walk. I sometimes have pain in my legs, especially in winter, from my accident at an amusement park. When I was 15, my friends and I went there. We had no money to enter for a fee. We would go up the wall with a board, lower the board and slide down it. We did. It happened several times at night, and one night I had an idea: to ride in the electric cars. Their keys were inside, so why not. But sometime I got off the track, and a friend of mine got stuck in me and got on me. Both my legs broke, and one crashed completely. My friends ran away I cried and shouted until I lost consciousness. The neighbors heard and ordered an ambulance. I went to Ichilov, where they cast me but did not put me in for surgery because there was no parent's signature. Wait, but no one came. Only after two days my mother arrived. Until then I was considered anonymous.
"At home I lay in a cast for eight months. On the way home they bought me a guitar in Allenby, so I would have something to do, and that's how it all started. By the way, Jimmy Hendrix also started playing due to an injury."
When was the last time you prayed?
"Not a long time ago. I used to pray at a young age, until seventh grade. My father would wake me up at three in the morning and take me to the synagogue with him. The Yemenis read before they pray for two or three hours, and that's how I learned to read. I was in first grade when I already knew how to read and write.
"When I got to first grade, 'to Ashkenazi school, me and my two friends were the only Yemenis in the class. The teacher came in, said' hello 'and' today we will learn the letter ''. She wrote the letter on the board, and I told her 'there are letters too' B, C ... 'I went to the board and wrote all the letters, up to T, and also words, like' Dad 'and' Mom. 'The teacher went to talk to the principal, and when she came back she sat us down at the end. The principal forgot to tell her to come Yemenis who know how to write and score better than her, so she put her at the end of the class so we would not be disturbed. I did not see it as discrimination. I understood her.
"In eighth grade, I left school, and I also stopped praying. The parents knew, were angry with me, but put up with it. Today I believe that every man in his faith will live."
When was the last time you felt discriminated against?
"I felt in music. The peak of discrimination was with Zohar Argov. At first they did not accept him, he had a talent that was difficult to accept. In the end he made a revolution. A radio broadcaster always has the option to broadcast according to his personal taste, and the broadcasters did not like Zohar Argov, which is annoying.
"But I saw that if you keep playing - the street wins. The deprivation was great, but we knew we would win. The way we took out the cast there were a lot of performances. Everyone wanted Zohar Argov in his house, and then us, and then even the kibbutzniks invited us. I said 'Oh, It interests them! '
"You know, in 20 years there will be no question of discrimination or discrimination. For my sons and my grandchildren it no longer matters. They are all Israelis."
When was the last time you spent time with friends?
"This week, at shows. The singers on stage are my friends, and I enjoy performing with them. I don't like going out to clubs or vacations. Vacation can kill me. I can't sit by the pool, it's not for me.
"Today the shows are in neat places, halls. Once everything was in the gardens. They would bring tables, chairs, and there was a wedding or a show. When the DJ came, they changed the bands. Today whoever has the financial option brings a guest artist for an hour, and that's it.
"Today, in stations like IDF waves, a lot of English is played.
Why not speak Hebrew?
Israeli rock bands?
There are no bands that break out today, because they are not played.
A lot of bands don't succeed because they are not given a stage. "
When was the last time you met someone you admire?
"I loved and respected the older generation that was before me. I appreciate Boaz Sharabi, his work, his voice, his abilities, his culture. I appreciate Joe Amar, Danny Sanderson and Gidi Gov. I envy their work. These are talented people that I stand still when I see them.
"Today the admiration is to take a selfie, once it was letters. We would get sacks of letters from fans, I would answer nicely. There were no phone or social networks. The admiration used to be less disturbing than today. Now everywhere you are photographed, non-stop. When I come to the hall from the door First, up to the stage, 30 people stop me to be photographed. "
***
When did you first play in front of an audience?
"At my sister's wedding. The first time was when I was still on crutches, after the injury. My sister got married in 1968, and they brought a band and I wanted to play with them. Before the ceremony I took the guitarist's guitar for a moment and started playing it. I played Yemeni songs. He turned on my playing. "Because he was just looking for someone to play Yemeni, and asked my dad to join him, and the next day I was already performing with him at another wedding. I sat next to him with crutches and played. I do not prepare for performances at all. That's how I always performed, from now until now."
Judas Caesar. 68 years old, guitarist and musician. Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ministry of Culture (2017). Divorced, father of five and grandfather of three grandchildren. He began his career in the 1970s, accompanied by artists, including Ahuva Ozeri and Boaz Sharabi. He was a member of the "Sounds of the Oud" band, and accompanied Zohar Argov, Shimi Tavori, Haim Moshe, Zehava Ben, Eyal Golan and others as musicians. In 2000 he released a solo album called "The Last Emperor". Appears this week as part of the reading month events, on June 14 at "Koli Alma" in Tel Aviv, on the eve of a tribute to "Tzlilei Hakerem"
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