Israeli artists have long written songs about the Holocaust, including Ehud Manor and Avi Toledano, whose “Chai” sung by Ofra Haza for Israel’s entry in the 1983 Eurovision contest, and Yehuda Polikar, son of Auschwitz survivors from Thessaloniki, Greece, whose teaser songs Reflects on his experience as the second generation of his parents’ trauma.
A new album Out of 13 songs, “Pascoal Shalishi” (3rd soundtrack), written by leading Israeli composers, is the latest effort aimed at connecting third and fourth generations to the tragedies and lessons of the Holocaust.
“We understood there was an opportunity to do this with the survivors, to create an experience that could connect with this generation, the third and fourth generations,” said Moshe Klughaft, a political campaign manager who specializes in songwriting and writing. Works in production too. And whose own ancestors were born in the holocaust.
Klughaft has previously put together songs and albums relating to the Holocaust. He revived ghetto Jewish songs with Aviv Geffen, Ninet, Moshe Ben Ari and others, as well as with the song “My Mother” by pop singer Noah Kirel.
But as he contemplated producing another Holocaust soundtrack, Klughaft connected with radio station Galgalatz and Zikaron Beslon, an organization that puts together gatherings in homes across Israel where survivors share their memories with families, friends and neighbors. Tells stories.
“We don’t know how to do it,” Klughaft said. “How do you get singers in the middle of their careers to write Holocaust songs?”
The staff at Zikaron Beslon came up with a plan, gathering a group of musicians at the Herzliya Hotel this winter for an intensive weekend of discussions with several survivors and spiritual leaders.
Another meeting took place two months later, in which the musicians were divided into groups and sent to hotel rooms that had been converted into recording studios.
“We took people from all kinds of musical backgrounds, Mizrahi and Hasidic and rock and pop, mixed it all together, and put all the styles together and the things that came out were interesting and brave and very different,” Klughaft said.
After just two days, they found themselves with 14 songs, said Klughaft.
“We thought it would take years,” he said. “We thought it wouldn’t be ready by the next Holocaust Memorial Day.”
Singer Rita participates in 2023’Pascoal Shlishi’, a project by Zikaran Beslon and Galgaltz, in which the lead musicians are working together on an album of songs about the Holocaust (courtesy pascoal shlishi)
The group of musicians turned out to be unlikely but interesting pairings: groovster Guy Mezig with pop singer Harel Skat; Beniya Barbi with diva Rita. Crooner Sivan Talmor had several solos, such as “The Map of Pain” by Ivry Lider, whose mother is a Holocaust survivor. Tamir Greenberg performed “Why Me?” About those who survived.
“The group’s experience was one of the best I’ve ever had,” said Yonatan Razel, a pianist and singer whose soulful, religious songs have won them a fan following in Israeli society.
Razel wrote “The Number Song” with Guy Mezig, Doron Medley, Harel Skat and Tal Kastiel about Mordechai, a 99-year-old survivor who spoke to him about the number stamped on his arm.
Razel’s grandfather jumped off a train that was headed to a camp and his family was rescued by a Dutch family. Razel’s daughter Chana is named after the non-Jewish Hannah who saved her family.
It was Razell’s grandfather, a cello teacher, who introduced his grandson to the words spoken by the Biblical Jacob in Genesis, which Razell used in his own words. The song “Katonti.”
I am not worthy of all mercy,
and of all truth,
which you showed to your servant
“We grew up with the awareness that we were saved,” Razel said.
Taking that personal history and combining it with the experience of working on the album created a special bond between the artists, and a soundtrack that reflects the mosaic of music and people in Israel, Razel said.
He also sees it as a worthwhile attempt to attract the younger generations of post-Holocaust Israel to the effort, without having to worry about whether or not they will achieve it.
“I’ve learned that when you connect with your heart, and it’s genuine, it will find its way to other hearts,” Razel said. “We did something with artistic truth and Israeli truth and I hope it resonates with the Israeli public.”
Israeli singer Rita said that when she usually writes songs, she doesn’t think about what the words will turn out.
“With this song, the theme is totally there, you have to know how to tell it,” said Rita in a video clip from the “Pascoal Schlesi” session created by Channel 12. “You have to know how to tell it so that the listener will know how to listen without being overwhelmed.
“Something interesting” happened in those hotel room studios, said Shai Tsabri, who brings Middle Eastern grooves to his rock ballads and collaborated with Coby Oz, Stav Beger, Alon Edar and Aya Zehava Fegelin on “The Old Man From Berlin.” sing along
“The whole time there was something that was driving us forward,” said Tsabari, the son of parents born in Yemen. “The egos that are usually present didn’t exist. I wish we could all understand that this is not just a song, not just an attempt to write a hit.
The project needed a different kind of energy, Tsabari said, and was aided by a very real goal, Zikaran Besalon, personal stories and a setting created by spiritual leaders.
“It felt legendary, like something was whispering in our ears, ‘Let’s go, this is really important,'” he said.
The musicians who came were the ones who wanted to be there, Klughaft said. He is confident that the success of this production will lead to other albums and additional voices.
The songs will be performed at the official Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony to be broadcast on Channel 12 on Monday night and will be included in other celebrations across the country.
will also be Jicaron Beslon events, in schools and in youth movements, that would focus on the “Pascoal Shlishi” songs and discuss the stories and people behind the songs.