October Newsletter - Heritage

So, we got off the bus and headed toward the steps. We couldn’t see where we were going, aside from a sign on the side about a museum.

Reluctantly climbing the steps, we entered the building, into a gift shop packed with all kinds of stuff which we were too tired to even look at. They herded us through a door, down some more steps into a room that could have been the storeroom of a large shop in Shuk Hapishpeshim (flea market). It was full of antiques that we didn’t yet understand, but they sure looked interesting. There were rows of plastic Keter chairs set up in front of a few pianos. An old man was standing there, under an Australian-style wide-brimmed hat, inviting us in to sit down. Part of the room was casually blocked off by a ceiling-to-floor curtain. We started walking around the room, despite his invitation, but when some of us headed toward behind the curtain, he said strongly not to go back there, and to please come and sit down.

So, we did. And then he started to talk. Turns out he is 97 years old (!) and has been collecting antique music boxes all his life. Not the small kind that stand on your dresser, but large pieces of furniture that contain amazing music boxes and self-playing instruments, some of them 150-200 years old! He was extremely entertaining in his presentation, explaining about some of them and playing some of them, including an antique mechanical Grand Steinway Player-Piano.

The highlight of the presentation was what was behind the curtain. It was a huge 84-key mechanical organ – words cannot describe this fantastic instrument. You can see a bit of it in action in the video below. The volume of this amazing machine was very loud.

On our way out, we had more strength to look at the items in the gift shop. Many different kinds of small music boxes, including (we were told) the world’s ONLY musical Mezuzot!

If you are ever in the Ein Hod area, DO NOT MISS THIS GEM OF A MUSEUM!

 
The Nisco Museum of Mechanical Music