December Newsletter - Heritage

Continued from Here

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 that we were too tired to even look at. We passed through a door into a room that could have been the storeroom of a large shop in Shuk Hapishpeshim (the flea market). It was full of antiques that we didn’t yet understand, but they certainly looked interesting. There were rows of plastic Keter chairs set up in front of a few pianos. An elderly 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 kept walking around the room, despite his invitation, but when some of us headed toward the curtain, he said strongly not to go back there, and to please come and sit down.

So, we did. And then Nisco 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! Nisco was extremely entertaining in his presentation, explaining about some of the instruments and letting us hear 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, to say the least!

On our way out, we had more strength to look at the items in the gift shop. There were many 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 and the sweet and eccentric Nisco!

The Nisco Museum of Music Boxes & Mechanical Music.