Since October 7, Hashayara has played for displaced families, evacuated communities, soldiers on the front lines, and youth in bomb shelters.
Hashayara in Wilmington, Delaware.(photo credit: Siegel JCC) | View the original article on The Jerusalem Post
The events of October 7, 2023, have created an unlimited need for avenues of healing and dealing with trauma, not only in Israeli society but also in the Jewish world, where antisemitism has run rampant.
Gilad Perry, a musician and Jewish educator from Karmiel, combined his two loves to form Hashayara, a musical ensemble that brings together the community through song.
Perry, 47, explains that Hashayara means “convoy – people going someplace in a direction, where everyone can get on board and join,” and that the musical journey he’s created with help from his keyboard-playing brother Asaf, “uses music to bring people together to create connections – with each other, with the community, and with the songs.”
Since October 7, they’ve played for displaced families, evacuated communities, soldiers on the front lines, and youth in bomb shelters. And more recently, the 14-member ensemble performed for nine Jewish communities in the US, from Massachusetts to Texas.
Perry, born in Karmiel, spent a lot of time in the mid-1990s playing hard rock music in bomb shelters. “We played Nirvana and Pearl Jam but also listened to the oldies and goodies at home – Chava Alberstein, Arik Einstein.” He looks back on joining the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed (Working and Studying Youth Movement), which he reports was “life-changing.”
He credits the kibbutz youth movement for his deepened knowledge of and connection to Zionism, which he describes as “a call for fulfilling values and reality.”
Perrys feels that “there is something very Zionistic in shira b’zibbur (public singing) – everyone sits in a circle and can see each other, everyone can participate, there is no hierarchy, and our voices literally create sound waves together – something deep happens when we hear songs we like. There is something very rewarding and healing.”It is this healing power of singing together that Perry and Hashayara put in to action in the days following October 7.
“In October 2023, we realized as part of our mission, we have a responsibility to bring music, healing, and connection wherever it is needed. We put our instruments in the car and started driving.” They essentially haven’t stopped driving and sharing their important work. They have performed over 180 shows and musical encounters for soldiers, evacuees, survivors, and various communities.
“In a meeting at a Dead Sea Hotel with evacuees, we saw people with pain but also resilience facing the most important challenges of overcoming trauma and creating a normal life.” Perry describes “meeting thousands,” performing songs in lobbies and conference rooms, and witnessing “laughing, crying, and letting go.”
At each gathering, the musicians strive to “break the barrier between stage and audience.” They pick five or six songs, followed by the audience selecting songs. “Some evacuees and soldiers even joined us on stage and became part of Hashayara!” The musicians have donated guitars, ukuleles, melodicas, and darbukas to both army units and evacuees following performances.
Hashayara extends reach outside of Israel
Following their warm reception within Israel, Hashayara decided to share their important musical and healing experience outside of Israel.
“We realized that the Jewish community in the United States is going through very challenging times and that our responsibility is not just for those within Israel. We are needed there as well.” A program for non-Israelis would need to offer a different message and take lack of familiarity with Hebrew in to account. “We did things like create mashups – Let It Be with Lu Y’hi and I’ve Got Sunshine with Keren Shemesh. We also project lyrics in Hebrew and English and teach some songs.
The US shows included two special songs – “Anachnu Ve’Atem” (We and You) and a moving Hebrew adaptation of John Denver’s song “Country Roads.”
The first song, originally written in the 1970s by Yoram Taharlev and Yair Rosenblum, was rearranged to offer a message of unity between the Jewish communities of Israel and the US. The second song features raw emotion-containing lyrics by Noa Hobara from Kibbutz Sufa, in memory of her husband, Ido Hobara, who was killed on October 7 defending their home.
Perry never forgets that “Israel must be a hagshama, a realization for such values as tikun olam (repairing the world), v’ahavta l’reacha k’mocha (loving your neighbor as yourself) and kol Yisrael areivim zeh b’zeh (all Jews are responsible for each other). Through music, we can try to remember that and create a call to our participants.”
The group’s performances have touched a nerve. Ayala Gidron, a PhD student at Bar -lan University, saw the Hashayara performance in Virginia while spending the 2024 academic year at the College of William and Mary and says that it created hope for her.
“The focus isn’t on what might be, but on the encounter-taking place in the present moment – between us and you. That’s why it actively creates hope, turns it into a tangible experience, grounds it, while still preserving its spiritual depth. It’s not detached from what is happening in the room–it generates it,” she says.
Nammie Ichilov, president & CEO of the Jewish Community of Greater Naples, said that he loved having Hashayara in his community.
“Hashayara’s presence brought the spirit of Israel directly to our community at a time when we needed it most; and the image of the standing-room-only packed 400 community member social hall, spanning generations, waving flags, dancing in the aisles, and joining together in song will remain with us for years to come.”
Hayashara currently has two more shows scheduled in the US in October and hopes to tour such countries as England, France and Austria. Hashayara also plans to create music and healing programs for residents returning to their communities in the north and south.
“It’s important for our show to be a journey during the very hard times that we are experiencing – and address October 7, loss, the hostages and other issues in Israeli society,” says Perry. “We go through that, as well as hope, solidarity and togetherness.