From 25 people to 1,400? From the Shira Pransky Project benefit concert to the Yad l’Olim benefit concert in memory of Shira Pransky, z”l? Collective Tehillim recital in the middle of a concert?
Unbelievable indeed, were I not witness to it myself.
I first heard of Shira Davidovich Pransky ten years ago, while I was gathered with Rav Shlomo Katz and 25 others commemorating her fourth yartzeit in her parents’ living room. The way of the world is that such gatherings tend to get smaller over time, even for well-known leaders and personalities. But last motzaei Shabbos, I was blessed to be part of a sold-out, 1,400 strong crowd for a concert with Shlomo Katz and Ishay Ribo commemorating Shira’s 14th yahrzeit. Who was Shira? How is it that her impact and influence on the world has only grown since her untimely passing?
The truth is, I don’t quite know, as I never met her. But I can say this: There are few people whose passing has evoked tears from me, mostly close family members and mentor figures. Apart from specific circumstances of terror, I have never cried for someone I didn’t know, certainly not someone I didn’t hear about until many years after their passing. Except Shira Pransky.
Shira was a woman of unfathomable strength and ratzon. Diagnosed at the tender age of 17 with Hodgkin’s disease, she battled it in superhuman fashion through multiple recurrences. Over nine years of incalculable hardship – physical and emotional – she remained a beacon of light to those around her. Visitors were never denied her trademark smile, and the will to keep fighting stayed strong. Those who came to strengthen, left strengthened; those who came to encourage, left encouraged. When there were friends’ simchas to attend, rather than justifiably excuse herself, she put forth every effort she could to be together with them.
Though I never met Shira, I am blessed to know Shira’s family. They are each individual towers of strength, and through them Shira’s presence shines through. Authenticity, genuineness, and heartfelt emotion cannot be artificially manufactured; when talking to Shira’s close ones, that’s no obstacle.
To give but two examples. How many people generate a tangible aura of Shabbos, a presence of the Sabbath Queen unlike any I’ve otherwise experienced? How likely is it that such a person would be a practicing lawyer for nearly 60 years? And how likely is it that said lawyer, well past retirement age but still practicing, would undertake a rigorous three-year program of semicha, rabbinical school? Shira’s father, Rabbi Nate Davidovich, is one such person, whose life centers around learning and teaching Torah, always with a twinkle in his eye.
And how many people, upon becoming a widower in their 20s, with a toddler to take care of no less, proceed to found a non-profit honoring their spouse’s memory? How many people have the courage to face the vulnerability doing so entails? And how many of those keep a dogged persistence, despite being soft-spoken and not having a business background, to grow the organization so that thousands of other people need not suffer as they did? Shira’s husband, Gabe Pransky, is one such person.
Gabe and Shira’s struggle fighting cancer was compounded by being immigrants needing to navigate the intricacies of the medical system in a foreign language. As such, the overarching goal of the Shira Pransky Project (SPP) was to simplify navigation of the Israeli healthcare system for Anglo immigrants, especially in times of crisis. This assistance takes many forms, such as providing healthcare advocates and translating all information and forms on Israel’s health websites.
In July 2022, SPP joined forces with Yad l’Olim (YLO), an organization borne out of the havoc Covid-19 travel policies wreaked on Anglos in Israel whose mission is to ease all bureaucratic obstacles immigrants face. Founded by former MK Dov Lipman, it saw phenomenal success in its first year and has effectively become the first government lobby for Anglo immigrants. The two organizations’ goals aligned closely, and so it was that SPP evolved into the YLO Healthcare Division in memory of Shira Pransky.
Before the concert, I bumped into some students I know. I tried to impress upon them the origins of this annual concert and who Shira was. The one minute I had was quite inadequate. It saddened me to think these thousands of people would never know the humble beginnings of SPP. I imagined they would otherwise not hear much about her as this was YLO’s concert, not SPP’s.
How pleasantly surprised I was when I saw a page of the program dedicated, however briefly, to telling Shira and SPP’s story. This won’t give people a taste of who she truly was, I thought, but it’s a nice gesture nonetheless. Fast forward well into Shlomo Katz’s performance and I was taken aback to hear him speak about Shira on stage, proceeding to engage us all in a spiritual breathing exercise he attributed to absorbing from Shira’s way of being. This introduced a beautifully apropos song, “Everlasting Love.” Then, poignant video interviews with Shira’s family which cut to the essence of who Shira was. Her sister Joani shared an incident when Shira arrived at the hospital for treatment, but hesitated to enter due to the nausea it caused her. She turned to her mother saying, “My life is…wonderful. It’s perfect.” As Joani put it, “She lived with emunah, never asking ‘Why me’?”
Tehillim recital in the middle of a spirited, roaring concert? Indeed, using the Abraham’s Legacy app, the crowd completed the entire book of Psalms multiple times in Shira’s memory during a three-minute interlude. Accompanying this interlude was a cameo appearance by Shlomo Lipman singing his original composition, Aneini (Answer Me Please). The only issue with Lipman’s appearance was his last name, which might lead some to be wary of nepotism (Dov Lipman, founder of YLO, is his father). Let me assure you his place on stage was 100% merit-based. In fact, more than any of Shlomo Katz or Ishay Ribo’s songs, it is his that is still echoing in my mind. How rare it is for a parent organization to convey such respect for smaller organizations it absorbs, and to offer a platform for the continued memory of said organization’s namesake. YLO did so beautifully.
And all of this is to say nothing about Ishay Ribo, whose soulful, Biblically-oriented, masterfully complex lyrics yield a product virtually unprecedented in the world of Jewish music. Whereas Eitan and Shlomo Katz’s music excels in provoking a yearning for spirituality, Ribo’s music is unrivaled in how it provides a catharsis for the soul.
Seeing him live certainly offered its perks. Ribo, a child of French immigrants himself, threw in numerous lyrical twists paying homage to the significant sacrifices all olim pay to make life work in the Jewish homeland.
Between songs, with MKs and other government officials sitting in the audience, Ribo offered an impassioned plea for the government to recognize the hardships immigrants face and to “roll out the red carpet for every immigrant that arrives.” But more than the shout outs, the music, the lyrics, what stood out seeing the internationally renowned Ribo perform live was his character. The way he carried himself on-stage and off. The way he said “Thank you,” after each song, in a most self-effacing, humble manner.
Shira’s mother, Amy, shared with me afterwards how astonishing it all was. “There’s only one person,” she said, “that could ultimately be responsible for something so improbable: Shira. She must be pulling some strings up High.” But most astonishing to me is that despite the concert being a massive, public production with so many different parts, goals, musicians, and organizers, it’s nonetheless remarkably easy to sum it all up in one word: authentic. Just like Shira herself.
Having run in the first Jerusalem Marathon SPP participated in ten years ago, I plan on running once again this year, the first year since SPP became incorporated into Yad l’Olim. Beyond being meaningful to me, if you have any Anglo friends or family living in Israel, please know that your donation will help ease the beauracratic difficulties they’ll inevitably face. https://causematch.com/ylo-marathon/48491/
