The maestros who’ve adopted the new entertainment genre say the energy and sheer joy created in these concerts of unity are their greatest reward
Photos: Kol Barama, Nati Albar
TO combat the polarization and division that seems to drive Israeli society, a social-musical phenomenon known as “Koolulam” began bringing people together to drop their agendas for a few hours and instead spend the time singing in unison — forming a collaborative musical creation bypassing barriers.
While Koolulam is a national initiative and not geared toward the gender-segregated religious public, the idea was intriguing: Why not try a “frum Koolulam” — a mass-singing event bringing hundreds, or even thousands of bochurim and men together to not only listen to a concert, but to create their very own sound?
Four years ago, on Chol Hamoed Succos of 2018, famed Israeli conductor and music creator Yoeli Dickman produced the first chareidi Koolulam in Jerusalem’s Binyanei Hauma convention center, under the name “Yeshivishir.” Since then, these mass singing events, which turn the entire audience into performers as all attendees have their separate parts in what becomes a massive choir, have become the entertainment of choice, from Tzfas in the north to Be’er Sheva in the south.
As the skilled music director divides the crowd into sections, he has just 50 minutes to teach them melodies and harmonies that will become a thousands-strong wall of music that swells up and uplifts participants in incredible, beautiful unity.
While it might seem counterintuitive for these industry professionals — who prefer to work only with the “best” — to feature untrained singers of all ages as the new performing stars in their concerts and music clips, the maestros who’ve adopted the new entertainment genre say the energy and sheer joy created in these concerts of unity are their greatest reward.
It is easiest for the crowd to learn and sing a quiet song, a song of feeling and emotion, and those songs give the best outcomes for Yeshivishir. But this year, when someone asked me to help out with choosing a song for our first girls’ mass singing event, they specified that they wanted something with more tempo, beat and energy. For some reason, the girls do better with faster songs.
In addition to the singing, I find that the crowd needs something else to keep things exciting and fresh. I always add surprises to the Yeshivishir experience, which have become part of their popularity. We’re always looking for a gimmick. When we sang Rabbi Baruch Chait’s “Lo Amus” in Yeshivishir 4, we hired a magician for the stage, and I folded myself up into a box which would then be stabbed with knives. It’s a standard magician’s trick, but boy, was it hard work for me — I had to practice for weeks folding myself in half, but the crowd loved it. We did “Abba Melech Ha’olam” with a laser light show, and I have a gimmick where I get the audience to find their pitch by playing cups filled with different water levels or playing a violin bow on a saw. For Yeshivishir 5, we did the song “Piha Pascha… (Sha la la la la)” and not only did the crowd sing, but we had a surprise appearance of four all-star singers on the stage, including Yishai Lapidot, who composed it, and Ohad Moskowitz, who first sang it.
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