From Militant Zionist to Music Festival Pioneer

Aaron Zvi Propes was the first member of Betar and a loyal follower of controversial Zionist leader Zev Jabotinsky. While his comrades like Menachem Begin went on to politics, he founded music festivals, including the Israel Festival which is taking place this week. Learn about how as a teen, Propes and his Jewish Latvian high school friend coaxed Jabotinsky out of retirement and into inspiring generations of young Zionists. Plus, the early days of the Zimriya World Choir festival, the International Harp Contest, and the reconstruction of the 2,000-year-old Roman theater in Caesarea all of which Propes initiated.

The first Israel Festival in 1961 was at the new reconstructed 2,000-year-old Roman theater in Caesarea, both projects initiated by Aaron Zvi Propes. Credit: Israeli Government Press Office.

Zev Jabotinsky (right), Menachem Begin (left) Aaron Zvi Propes (middle) and other Betar members meeting in Warsaw, Poland, circa 1939. Credit: GPO

Famed violinist Isaac Stern at Caesarea for the first Israel Festival, 1961. Credit: GPO

Yemenite wedding dance at the Israel Festival, 1966. Credit: Moshe Milner, GPO

Aaron Zvi Propes introducing the Zimriya International Song Festival at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1967. Credit: Ilan Bruner, GPO.

Influential Russian conductor Igor Stravinsky at the second annual Israel Festival, 1962, with Aaron Zvi Propes and others. Credit: Moshe Pridan, GPO.

NOTES:

• Israel Festival - official website

• International Harp Contest in Israel - official website

• Zimriya World Assembly of Choirs in Israel - official website

• “Zimriya” Establishes Four Prizes for Musical Compositions - JTA, 1954

• International Music Festival Concludes in Israel with Special Concert - JTA, 1961

• First Music Festival Opens for Israel’s Bar Mitzvah - JTA, 1961

• Trees Planted in Israel by Violinist Isaac Stern, Cellist Pablo Casals - JTA, 1961

• Jabotinsky - The Man and the Vision - Founding of Betar

• Aharon Propes entry in the Encyclopedia of the Pioneers of the Yishuv and its Builders, volume 4 (1950)