Is this the last rung for Jacob's Ladder? Israel's folk festival could see its last performance

In a running joke among music fans, British rock greats The Who refuse to retire. This summer, they are performing what is billed as their final tour, after having done numerous “farewell” tours over the last couple of decades. But who knows?

“It depends if people buy tickets and book rooms,” said Yehudit with a chuckle, during a recent phone call from her home in Katzrin. “If it’s full, we’ll be encouraged to do it again.”

Acrobats, face-painting and new age accoutrements blended effortlessly with banjos, fiddles, rock & roll, camping, swimming, and barbecues.

The pandemic and, soon after, the war in Gaza and Lebanon – along with evolving economic constraints – wreaked havoc with the festival’s scheduling and format, and in 2022 it was reborn as a smaller-scale, but still encompassing indoor event at Kfar Blum, where it has found a welcome home.

“We planned to do this until we were 89,” said Menachem Vinegrad. “At first we said, when we’re 60. Then no, when we’re 70. So if we can get to 80, it will be a wonderful achievement. And if not, it’s still a wonderful achievement. The festival’s been going for 47 years, and during that time we must have put on over 60 of them. So, it hasn’t been a bad run.”

IF IT is the final one, this year’s festival will make the legacy proud. Headlining will be festival favorites The Abrams from Canada, returning for the first time since 2017. Featuring brother John Abrams and James Abrams, the family band effortlessly combines country, bluegrass, rock, and pop with unbridled enthusiasm, and has ended many a Jacob’s Ladder on an ecstatic note.

According to the Vinegrads, even though the group is well beyond the festival’s modest pay scale, they love the vibe and the crowds in Israel so much, they forgo some of their contract requirements.

“They had contacted us in 2019 and asked to appear, and we had to turn them down because we couldn’t afford it,” said Yehudit. “The last big festival we had at Ginossar, we only covered the expenses, except for our own. We worked so hard for months, and we were able to pay all of the artists and suppliers, except for ourselves. It was very stressful; we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to pay all of the artists.”

But with the flights taken care of, and amid the specter that this might be the last time for the Abrams and Jacob’s Ladder connection, arrangements were made for their return.

“If this is our last festival, let’s go out in style,” said Menachem. “We have a very good relationship with the Abrams. We always pick them up at the airport, we stayed with them when we were in Ontario.

“They’re coming for three nights – from Canada,” added Yehudit. “They said, ‘We would never do this for anyone but Jacob’s Ladder.’”

However, with the North being only a few months free of steady rocket fire from Hezbollah, the Vinegrads told the brothers, who are coming with their father, Brian, the band’s founder, that they could back out if hostilities resumed.

“We told them we didn’t want them to endanger themselves, and if Canada issues a warning saying it’s not safe, then please don’t come,” said Yehudit. “But they’re so enthusiastic. It’s touching and amazing.”

The Abrams aren’t the only reason to attend this year’s festival. Among the other artists doing sets will be festival regular Shay Tochner & Friends; Black Velvet with Ronit Shahar doing Irish and Scottish material; the Rusties performing a rocking tribute to Neil Young; and gospel, soul, and ecology from the unique Maple & the Ecosystem.

“I’m sad that the summer camping version of Jacob’s Ladder has ended, but our whole crew – kids and friends – will be attending the winter version this year, in Airbnbs and the Kfar Blum kibbutz hotel,” said attendee Blum. “The lineup looks amazing. We’re so glad Jacob’s Ladder is continuing – one year at a time, as who knows what the future may hold?”

The Vinegrads found satisfaction in that multigenerational pull the festival held for so many years.

“One of things we encounter all the time is people in their 30s and 40s contacting us and saying ‘we grew up at Jacob’s Ladder, and we would so much have loved for our children to have been able to attend something like that’ – three days of music and peace in absolute safety,” said Menachem.

“We’re sorry we can’t offer that much anymore, but we can offer the music, and the feeling, in a slightly different fashion.”

“The music is still the key,” added Yehudit. “It’s authentic, and it’s simple, like it has been for the whole time of the festival’s existence. We go to hear every group personally before adding them to the bill.”

The festival has traditionally always ended with the Lead Belly standard “Irene, Goodnight,” sung by whichever artists are still there and the entire audience in one group sway hug.

When the song finishes this year, it may never return. But the reverberations will be felt by anyone who had the privilege of attending a Jacob’s Ladder festival.

When asked whether someone else, their children or grandchildren, could or would take over the festival when they step down, the Vinegrads demurred.

“Jacob’s Ladder is something unique in our DNA,” said Yehudit. “I don’t think anyone else can take it over.”