Last update - 00:00 30/08/2006
U.S. yeshiva student rockers raise cash for Israelis, Lebanese
By Yair Ettinger
A married couple approached the stage. As the guitars picked up the pace, they shyly started to move. The skullcap-wearing husband, David Berger, fights in the unit that shelled the central sector of southern Lebanon. He returned two weeks ago from his military service on the northern border, and went out with his wife to the Yellow Submarine club in Jerusalem on Monday night.
But David Berger was doing more than just going out for a night on the town - he was participating in a benefit performance in the Talpiot industrial zone. The money will be donated equally to citizens of northern Israel and those of southern Lebanon. Only in Jerusalem could an event like this bring together some 80 young people from the left and right, speaking English (mostly) and Hebrew. There was rock music and Arabic music, swinging tzitzit and exposed cleavage.
Shimshon Segal, a yeshiva student from the Bat Ayin settlement in Gush Etzion, was the emcee for the "After the War" evening of music.
'We're all human beings'
We all have different opinions about the war, about the political situation here in Israel, Segal said from the stage in English. Nonetheless, he added, we all agree that everyone can relate to a human being as a human being.
The money going to the residents of the north will be donated to the charity organization Table to Table, Segal said, but he and his friends are not yet certain how to get the donations to the Lebanese. It's important that the money be transferred in a way that guarantees that it will reach the civilians, and not Hezbollah, he said.
The organizers of the event - Segal, Daniel Sieradski and Amy Kaplan - are Americans living in Israel and studying at Orthodox religious institutions. They recruited local artists such as Segol 59 from Jerusalem and the Arab rapper Saz from Ramle. The three organizers have different political opinions, but agreed to run an event that would help civilians on both sides of the border. They were surprised by the extent of the opposition the event generated. Posters hung up to advertise the event were torn off, and an ad on the Arutz 7 Web site led to a wave of negative e-mails.
"I'm Sabbath-observant and I keep kosher, I put on tefillin and study Gemara," said Sieradski. "And as soon as I try to respect people's humanity, they immediately treat me like the enemy of the Jewish people."