Article By:   Marion Stone

This Year’s Summer Concert was bittersweet. It was a tribute to Sandy Cohen ז"ל, initiator of the concert, who passed away, too early, over a year ago. This year’s concert marked a continuation of her legacy, as the Levonah chapter continues to raise funds for the Gandel Rehabilitation Centre at Mount Scopus.

The evening was opened by President of the Hadassah Levonah Chapter, Robin Weiss, who introduced herself, welcomed the audience and introduced Zenia Cohen, the previous President of the chapter, and organizer of the event, who spoke briefly about Sandy’s contribution to Hadassah.

Sandy, a skilled and talented pianist had studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York before coming on aliya with her husband, the late Jonathan. In 2018 she joined with Jochanan de Graaf and they would play duets with 4 hands on the piano, for a fundraiser concert held every year for 6 years.

Jochanan offered to continue the concerts together with his nephew Ariel de Graaf, a violinist.

“Our chapter felt it was fitting to honor the memory of our beloved Sandra Cohen tonight, for all that she did for Hadassah”

Zenia called on Rose Scharlat, to speak about Sandy, her close friend.

Rose told us that Sandy deeply loved music, and to hear her play would be a whole experience. “Sandy brought creativity, elegance, warmth, and joy to everything she touched”. Sandy would be involved with creating the titles for the concerts, which would reflect the program content.

Rose expressed the message that the evening would not be about loss but an evening of gratitude for the beautiful music she created, that sadly only memories remain, and the friendships she nurtured,

“May this evening honor her memory with the harmony, joy, and grace that she brought into all of our lives”

Title of the 2026 concert is “from Gypsies and Klezmer to Kreisler”, and Johanan De Graaf gave commentaries throughout. It was a mix of traditional folk melodies, many of which were familiar, and the Fritz Kreisler violin serenades and waltzes featured Ariel De Graaf’s mastery of the violin. The final pieces were Humoresque op 101, played to Kreisler’s arrangement, and Sonatina opus 100, both composed by Dvorak.

After the popular encore, Zenia Cohen thanked everyone involved with making this a successful evening, including all the sponsors

Special mention was given to Avis and David Weitzman for co-underwriting the concert in honor of their 90th birthdays, along with Zenia and Jeffrey Cohen.

She presented Jochanan and Ariel with certificates and called on Sandy’s family to accept a poster made up of photographs of Sandy at past concerts, created especially for the evening.

Everyone stood to sing the Hatikva before we left.