A fan who drove in from Boston to attend the event wrote about his experience in detail and posted it to an Ofra Fan Group on Yahoo. The full review is inspiring in it’s breadth. Below is a sample, beginning with the fan’s arrival at 92Y:
I waited outside and watched the pulse of New York go in and out. I had to admit the wait was made more pleasant by the throng of young dancers exiting the building. I saw an elderly Muslim man in full garb enter the building. I wondered if the Muslim gentleman was going to the tribute concert. I also admit I wondered if I made a mistake coming down by myself, thinking that the show might be rather lame and my effort would have been a waste.
Finally they opened the doors to the concert hall for the pre-concert talk. Apparently, Professor Ephraim Isaac was not an elderly Muslim man, but an elderly Yemenite Jewish Scholar. His talk focused less on Ofra but rather the role of Yemenite Jewry in preserving Jewish identity. He ended his speech by talking about the role Yemenite Jews may play in being a bridge between Jews and the Muslim world, as they are in fact Arab Jews. I laughed when he said that whenever he entered a cab, with a Muslim driver, they would say, “salaam alachem”. He would respond, “no, no, no, I am Jewish”. They would say, “Brother, you don’t have to hide who you are here”. His reply, “no I am a Yemenite Jew” and the response, “that is o.k. you are still a brother”. A wonderful story indeed.
There were only about 50 people for the talk in a hall that held about 1000 people. My fears that the show would be lame were somewhat heightened. Slowly people started to trickle in. The closer it got to show time, the slow trickle turned into hordes of people entering. The hall was filling up and appeared to be a near sell-out. Imagine my surprise when sitting down right in front of me, was Dr, Ruth.