Super group jams in Jerusalem

February 4, 2010 - 5:38 PM by David · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, Travel, tv 

Pat Boone the day after his jam session

The combination of Jerusalem, tourism, politics and music can make for some interesting combinations.

Imagine being a guest at the luxury David Citadel Hotel and coming back after a long day of touring around. In the lobby, you hear some strains of music and clapping coming from the grand ballroom downstairs, so you head on down to check it out.

Opening the doors, you, indeed, see some musicians gathered having a grand old time playing some early rock & roll, some blues and some country to an appreciative crowd of 150 or so American guests of the hotel.

Only on closer inspection do you realize that among the players are:

1- Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on bass
2- Legendary ’50s and beyond entertainer Pat Boone on vocals
3 – FOX News Jerusalem correspondent Mike Tobin on guitar.

Well, this lineup really did get together this week – Huckabee has been here with two busloads of mostly Christian American supporters, among them Boone, and his wife and granddaughter. Tobin, who regularly plays in a local band with standout guitarist Bradley Fish, asked his FOX colleague Huckabee, who’s an accomplished bassist, if he wanted to sit in with them. And Huckabee upped the ante by inviting Tobin and Fish to the hotel to jam with him and with Boone, who’s sold millions of records and was Elvis Presely’s nice guy alter ego in the 1950s.

“How could I pass up the opportunity to play with Pat Boone?” asked Tobin, recounting the evening to me.

The result was an eclectic session featuring impromptu renditions of “Ain’t That A Shame” (a hit for both Fats Domino and Boone), Roger Miller’s “King of the Road,” and a stirring rendition of the “Theme to Exodus, lyrics which were written in the early 1960s by Boone.

According to witnesses, many of the Christian supporters of Israel in the room were left with teary eyes. Boone called the song the “second Jewish national anthem” after Hatikva, and apparently, from the crowd’s reaction, he may be right.

Tags: , , , , , ,

IFCJ’s TV ad campaign

January 19, 2009 - 6:33 PM by Harry · 9 Comments
Filed under: General 

Rabbi Yechiel EcksteinThe Zionist community might be a little queasy about its relationship with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. After all, can supporters of Jerry Falwell and the Gush Katif crowd really share a bed comfortably? But the fact is, Chicago and Jerusalem native Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s organization has done amazing work when it comes to fostering support for Israel.

Last month, Eckstein was interviewed on the decidedly Jewish-flavored Shalom TV, where he defended his work with characteristic eloquence, speaking about how terror groups’ publicity campaigns in South America, for example, must be offset by his own.

Eckstein is no stranger to TV. His very own Journey To Zion program, which has been airing for about a year and a half on Christian television networks in the US, provides a pulpit for Eckstein’s introductory Jewish teachings.

And for the past several months, the IFCJ has been running TV ads on Fox News – something which no other pro-Israel informational organization has had the nerve or means to do. The spots (example here) may be sensationalistic, and they may stray from the latest trends of pushing an image of Israel as a nation of high-tech and supermodels, but they’re poignant, and they have yielded results.

This past March, back in the early days of the ad campaign, the IFCJ reported having raised enough funds to make a difference:

IFCJ funded the renovation of 32 public bomb shelters in Sderot at a cost of $1.5 million. In addition, the organization has recently pledged to upgrade 400 bomb shelters in privately-owned residences in Ashkelon at an expected cost of $2 million.

Even Haaretz is taking note, running a story last week on the campaign under the headline “Jewish charity brings U.S. viewers Israel’s version of the war in Gaza.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

© 2010 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap