SHANGHAI - Israel's artists joined with Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra members to give performances at the Expo Center on Thursday evening, celebrating Israel's National Pavilion Day at Expo 2010 Shanghai.

The show, titled "The Spirit of Israel", featured Israel's distinguished counter-tenor David D'Or and the Hora Jerusalem Dance Troupe, in cooperation with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. Combining ancient and modern traditions and innovations, the show represented the dialogue among Israel's various cultures and the country's relationship with China.

D'Or, whose voice has a range of four octaves, once performed for the King of Thailand and The Pope at the Vatican. The show was his first performance in Shanghai. With his voice, style and musical range, D'Or sang many Jewish and world music classics, including Nessun Dorma and Memory from the Broadway musical Cats.

The show staged D'Or with Hora Jerusalem and Hora Efrochim, two well-known dance troupes in Israel, whose repertoire included Israeli traditional and modern dance.

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The show was conducted by Rafi Kadishson, with Jacky Bachar as the art director.

Earlier on the same day, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the Israel pavilion to mark the opening of the celebration. Yuval Steinitz, minister of finance, and Gilad Erdan, minister of environmental protection, and many other VIPs attended the ceremony.

"It's the first time for Israel to participate in a World Expo with an independently built pavilion," Steinitz said. "The participation of Israel in this event is a testimony of our gratitude to the city of Shanghai for its help to our people during World War II."

Shanghai received and sheltered 30,000 exiled Jewish refugees who escaped from German occupation during 1940s. Many of them lived with assistance from local residents whose subsistence was already hard pressed.

"The President of Israel asked us to convey his best wishes to Expo 2010 Shanghai," Steinitz said. "Israeli people will not forget such virtue."

Alongside Nobel Prize winner Robert J. Aumann, Steinitz presented the most treasured exhibit in Israel pavilion - the original manuscript of the theory of relativity by Albert Einstein, on which he noted the most famous formula for modern physics - E=mc2.