Song: “Lashem Ha’aretz (Bum Bum)”
Composer: Yitzchak Fuchs
Album: Shloime Taussig’s Lashem Ha’aretz Umlo’ah
There’s something special about watching Yitzchak Fuchs sing. The tall white-bearded musician swaying over a guitar eyes closed and peyos swinging projects an incredible stage presence his features intense and absorbed. He’s a veteran performer who for decades has been inspiring audiences as varied as his milieus — from chassidic weddings to kumzitzen on Samarian hilltops from Antwerp sheva brachos celebrations to Monsey bar mitzvahs to student concert halls in Tel Aviv. Beyond the uplifting words and fresh style of his compositions it’s obvious just watching him that Fuchs who is also a silversmith is singing his heart and soul out.
His personal journey is expressed through his music. “My parents arrived in Israel from Poland after the war. They came from chassidic families but were so broken that no religion was left. My grandfather was a religious Jew a baal tefillah but his song was lost.
“As a teenager” Fuchs continues “I wanted to sing but I had no words. What was there to sing? And then I turned to Sefer Tehillim.”
