{"id":14685,"date":"2025-10-25T12:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/14685\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T12:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:29:16","slug":"bethlehem-japan-peace-projects-free-concerts-to-celebrate-sister-city-friendship-with-tondabayashi-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/14685\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem-Japan Peace Project’s free concerts to celebrate sister city friendship with Tondabayashi, Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A daylong celebration will commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II and the city’s sister city friendship with Tondabayashi, Japan.<\/p>\n

The festivities will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, at Payrow Plaza, 10 E. Church St., with the unveiling of the “International Kids\u2019 Guernica Peace Mural Exhibition” and a performance by Japanese taiko drummers.<\/p>\n

From 1:30 to 4 p.m., the event continues at the Bethlehem Area Public Library, 11 W. Church St., featuring a special peace concert. <\/p>\n

The evening will finish with the Strings of Hope premiere concert and multimedia screening at 8 p.m. at Congregation Brith Sholom, 1190 Macada Road. <\/p>\n

\"Udi<\/p>\n

Sister City Peace concert<\/p>\n

Tondabayashi became an official sister city of Bethlehem in 1972.<\/p>\n

Located in southern Japan, it’s among six cities partnered with Bethlehem through the Sister City program.<\/p>\n

Others are Achw\u00e4bisch Gm\u00fcnd in Germany, Corfu in Greece, Foiano di Val Fortore in Italy, Murska Sobota in Slovenia and Patillas in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

At the Sister City Peace concert, attendees will be able to see and hear historic violins that survived Hiroshima and the Holocaust, performed by Israeli-American cellist Udi Bar-David of the Philadelphia Orchestra. <\/p>\n

Bar-David also is founder of Intercultural Journey, a nonprofit in Philadelphia dedicated to fostering music among diverse cultures, and ARTolerance, which holds multimedia arts events aimed at promoting peace and unity. <\/p>\n

He will be joined by singer-songwriter Rachel Andie and Shamisen musician Kosaburo Kineya. <\/p>\n

Attendees also will hear reflections from Dr. T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, a Buddhist priest and founder of the Heiwa Peace and Reconciliation Foundation of New York,<\/a> and recorded messages from Bethlehem Mayor Willie J. Reynolds and city officials from Tondabayashi. <\/p>\n

Strings of Hope<\/p>\n

In the evening, the focus will shift to the Strings of Hope Concert at 8 p.m. at Brith Sholom. <\/p>\n

The multimedia performance tells the stories of WWII survivors from Hiroshima, Shanghai, Vienna, and Warsaw, Poland, through live music, film and spoken word.<\/p>\n

The concert again will feature Bar-David, Kineya and taiko drummer Joe Small. <\/p>\n

Miki Sankary, among the event’s organizers, said the concerts are more than performances \u2014 they are a testament to the enduring power of cross-cultural friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an unforgettable celebration of resilience, remembrance, and hope,\u201d Sankary said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chance for our community to reflect on history while building connections that will last for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concerts are free, but organizers are accepting donations through Bethlehem Area Public Library’s website. <\/p>\n

Attendees must register before the event. For information, visit the event’s website. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 A daylong celebration will commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,11125,155,154,11124,11126,11127,11128,11129,11130,11131,11132],"class_list":["post-14685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-area-public-library-events","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-public-library-events","tag-bethlehem-japan-peace-project","tag-bethlehem-japan-peace-project-concert","tag-international-kids-guernica-peace-mural-exhibition","tag-japan-peace-project","tag-japan-peace-project-concert","tag-japanese-taiko-drummers","tag-lehigh-valley-japan-peace-project-concert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}