In a historic move, Jewish music star Benny Friedman traveled with a 12 man crew to uplift yidden in 8 cities around the globe.
Over the past 5 months, Jews in Israel, New York, Florida and other large Jewish communities have hosted unity concerts as a way of being mechazek one another during this particularly turbulent time for klal yisroel.
Cities like Salt Lake City, Dallas, S. Paulo, however, have never experienced a Jewish concert on that level, some have never had one at all.
“That was the driving force behind this tour,” Benny Friedman told COLlive. “Now more than ever is when those Yidden need our support, and the reminder that they are not alone.”
With that the Am Yisroel Chai tour was born. A 12-man crew traveling together to uplift 8 cities around the world. S. Paulo, Toronto, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Salt Lake City and Boston.
The show was led by musical director Gershon Freishtat and his band from Israel, and included guest stars including rising star Moshe Tischler.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience to be able to watch the achdus and chizuk come alive night after night. Just unreal.” said Moshe Tischler.
Traveling and performing night after night, the crew didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, but they were energized by the inspiration of the special mission they were charged with.
“Being a proud Israeli, there is no higher calling for me, than to be able to use my talents to infuse thousands of Jewish people with a feeling of Jewish pride during these challenging times.” shared Gershon Freishtat.
“3 of the cities sold out within 36 hours of opening ticket sales.” tour director Chaim Zippel shared with COLlive. “That underscored the importance and need for what we are doing.”
One of the highlights of the Am Yisrael Chai show was the “Am Yisrael Mashup”, a blend of 2 of the “theme songs” that klal yisroel live with today: Am Yisrael Chai and Latzet Midikaon.
Tour producers decided to film and release it for Klal Yisroel to enjoy, and the clip quickly reached 50,000 views in under a week.