​ISRAELIS IN RHODE ISLAND

Shmuel (Sam) Gavish started playing the accordion at the age of ten.
He studied music at the Conservatorium in Givatayim. At the age of fourteen, he won third place in a national talent competition organized by Shmuel Rozen. This event led to a semi-professional career in the Israeli folklore dancing arena. During the early and mid-sixties the well-known dance group of Yonatan Karmon was dissolving after Yonatan and Gavri Levi, his second in command, parted ways. As a result, several folklore dance groups were born, made up of the Karmon dancers who would not give up on dancing. Shmuel joined as the accordionist of two such groups and participated in numerous shows in Israel and abroad. Shmuel performed with the dance groups until his recruitment to the IDF at the age of eighteen. Serving in the Tzanchanim (paratroopers) brigade during the attrition war and the Yom Kippur war didn’t leave too much time for playing the accordion, so it was stored in the closet for better days. In 1976 Shmuel arrived in the U.S. to study architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. The accordion joined Shmuel in his travel and found itself stored again, but this time in a NYC apartment’s closet. So, as the Gashash used to say: “o-to-to ve-chozrim habayta”, now Sam (Americans cannot pronounce Shmu-el) built a career in NYC that has kept him from returning back to Israel for 40 years. Then one day it happened!! Sam’s wife, Shelia, went too deep into the above mentioned closet destined to discover a dusty, spider web covered “funny looking” suitcase. “What’s that funny looking suitcase?” she asked. “An accordion I used to play,” he answered. “Do you know how to play it?” Sheila continued the probing. “I am not sure as I haven't played for years” was Sam's reply. “Show me, she said. “’O.K.," Sam said and the rest is history