Larger than life
From NJJN’s Israel anniversary supplement:
My family and I were living in Israel in 1998, when the country celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence.
That same year, Israel had an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, a wildly popular television pageant that combines elements of the Olympics and American Idol. Israel’s official entry was sung by a performer named Dana International, a sultry Cher look-alike with an interesting back story: Ms. International was a transsexual who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1993.
Needless to say, Israel’s religious establishment was not pleased that a transsexual - and one so flamboyant to boot - was representing Israel at the song showcase. Or should I say, they were even less pleased than usual by Israel’s selection.
Not only that, Dana International would sing a bouncy disco tune called Diva, which celebrated strong women throughout history. Not exactly Hallelujah, Israel’s winning 1979 entry.
The night of the contest, traffic came to a standstill outside our Jerusalem apartment as our neighbors - our buttoned-down, middle-class, mostly observant neighbors - sat down to watch the telecast from Birmingham, England.
It was late by the time all 25 singers had performed, and we decided to go to bed and listen to the results on the radio. For the next hour, an announcer asked each country’s judges for their vote tallies. Holland, Belgium, Italy… It soon became apparent that Israel was in the lead, and a murmur began to build in the courtyard. England, Denmark, Germany… As each judge put Dana closer to the top, the murmur became a buzz, and then the buzz became a roar.
Israel had won, and we and our neighbors went frankly nuts.
If the scene sounds familiar, it’s because it is exactly how elderly folks remember listening to the radio broadcast of the original United Nations vote that turned the idea of Israel into an international fact.
A half-century later, Israel had not only survived, but was strong enough, self-confident enough, diverse enough, and just a little bit crazy enough to send a transsexual as its official representative, and win.
A lot happened over the next 10 years - too much, to be honest. But I like to hold on to that moment, when a song united a factious country, and all of Israel - and guests like me - marveled at this strange and wonderful Jewish thing we had going.
“There is a woman who is larger than life,” sang Dana International. “There are senses that only she possesses / There is magic and there are hard days / And a stage that is all hers.”
JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 