There seems to be enough evidence that an organ has existed at the Saint Catherine Church in Bethlehem for at least six hundred years. In 1906, during construction work at the site of the Franciscan monastery, 221 organ pipes were discovered, belonging to a 14th century organ. These pipes are today on display at the Museum of Biblical Studies of the Flagellation in the Old City of Jerusalem. Later, a pilgrims’ testimony was found, mentioning the existence of an organ in 1640. The organist’s name appears to have been Brother Archangel of Agrigente. The second to last organ in this long list of instruments which followed one another in this church was constructed in the organ-building workshop of the Franciscan monastery of the Holy Savior in Jerusalem. It was begun by Brother André Morato of Grenada in 1914 and was completed by Brother Mazzela in 1929. It was rebuilt and electrified by Brother Delfin Taboada in 1955.

The last organ was constructed by Brother Taboada and inaugurated by a concert given by the late Agostino Lama (see Organ nb. II).

The new great organ of the Church of Saint Catherine in Bethlehem was built by the Austrian organ-builder Rieger in 1999. It had to be ready for the Pope’s visit in 2000. In order to enlarge the choir of the church, the preceding Taboada organ, had been hurriedly dismantled, but the new organ wasn’t yet ready, and Father Armando Pierucci, who composed, directed and played the Pontifical Mass, had to be content with a small electronic organ. The installation of the new organ began in 2001 and was completed in 2003. The new organ is composed in fact of two separate organs played on one single console. The Great, Solo and Pedal divisions are installed on a gallery constructed especially for that purpose above the central entrance door of the nave. The second case holds The Positive division as well as three stops belonging to the positive pedalboard.

הפוסט Bethleem- Nativity Church- St Catherine הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

This liturgical organ was installed in the crypt of the Basilica, at the level of the grotto of Joseph and Mary. Despite the small height of this church, the acoustics there is of a rare quality. The organ was made by the Italian organ builder Tamburini.
Unfortunately for the music lover, the organ is enclosed in two separate rooms adjoining the church and the volume is greatly diminished. In fact there are two organs, with two blowers, which are controlled by a single console (there is no actual case). The console is placed on a narrow podium at the back of the choir

הפוסט Nazareth Basilica lower floor הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

This organ was built by the Italian organ firm Vegesse-Bossi. Brother Delfin Taboada who ran the organ workshop at the Holy Savior from 1952 to 2000 improved this organ a lot: he electrified the previously pneumatic keyboard and stops’ action, added a third keyboard and in fact separated the instrument into two instruments, joined on a single console but air-supplied by two separate motors. The new keyboard stops were transferred with their sound board to the left lateral gallery. Brother Taboada added the mutation stops that came from an old Agati organ found at church of John the Divine in the city of Acre. The inauguration of this new instrument was on the 29th of April, 1977 with a concert given by the German organist Martin Gunther Foerstmann, professor at the Conservatory of Hamburg.

The organ was situated at the back of the choir and the console placed on the floor at the center of the choir, which allowed a choral ensemble to gather around the organist. The console, made by Tamburini, was modern, made of plywood and covered with formica. The organ facade composed of three tall wooden arches painted white and gold, imitating Greek columns. Two statues of angels play the trumpet on either side and two other angels stand on top at the center and carry the Franciscan emblem.
One blower supplied the Great, Recit and Pedal divisions. The second blower supplied the Positive, which could thus be used separately, as well as one pedal stop – Contrabass 16′. The main motor was placed in an adjacent room and the air pumped through a hole carved in the wall of the church, behind the organ.

הפוסט Jerusalem- Saint Saviour Franciscan Monastery הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The console is placed at the center of the choir of the upper church, and it is connected to the organ by a cable.

הפוסט Bethleem- Nativity Church- St Catherine הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The organ at YMCA in Jerusalem was built with the generosity of the Juilliard Foundation from New York. It was constructed by the American organ-builder Austin and installed in the concert hall of the YMCA center in Jerusalem in 1932. The scene of this hall is confined, so the console was placed in the hall and not on the scene and the organ itself was installed in several rooms adjacent to the hall communicating with it through holes made above the stage. These rooms being very small, a complete distortion of the instrument’s sound resulted and no one knows really how it could have sounded if one had placed it in the sound volume that it needed. Despite its questionable musical quality and acoustic problems, this instrument remained for about 40 years the only existing organ in a concert hall in Israel, and for this reason it was widely used for concerts and recordings. Most of the concerts were given by the Israeli organist Max Lampel, who worked in the early Israeli Radio and was for many years an organ professor in the Jerusalem Music Academy.

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The organ was disassembled in 2000 as part of a project to be installed in a warehouse in the city of Safed (Northern Israel). Due to a lack of financing this project was abandoned. Later, the Municipality of the city of Carmiel (Northern Israel) asked the organ builder G. Shamir to rebuild and install the organ in the great concert hall of the town. This project also remained unrealized. Meanwhile, except for the pipes from the fourth manual division which remained in YMCA, the organ itself diappeared.

[This organ is described in the article “Organs in Israel” appearing in the journal “The American Organist” of April 1991 by Brenda Lynne Leach.]

הפוסט Jerusalem- YMCA הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.