The Healing Light Project: Funk 'n Folklore in ISRAEL

Shalom!

Please learn more about this project & the fundraiser:

https://www.jewcer.org/project/hlp-israel/

WHAT IS THE HEALING LIGHT PROJECT?

The Healing Light Project is a project with its roots beginning in 2015. I received a simple Facebook request from a Zimbabwean musician living in South Africa. His reason for writing? To raise awareness through music about his love for Africa. Yes, he says, Africa IS a place where there is much poverty, crime, disease and racism. His song, PEACE, a song we recorded as part of our first collaboration, sings about this. Yet, with all that Africa is a place where this one man, together with eleven additional vocalists, is trying to let people know about another Africa - the Africa filled with loving friends and family - regular people who are trying to live regular lives just like most people in the world.

This one man, Mr. Future Moyo, sent letters to many musicians, most of whom either ignored his outreach or simply wished him well. Then it happened.

Yours truly, Rahel, received his letter and got curious. Who is this? What does he want? Why me? Music? Okay, sounds good.

I'm just a modest folk musician - singer-songwriter. My circle is small but growing. I know that I produce good music because people smile a lot when they hear it. They get calmer, more relaxed. They blow me kisses and tell me they love it. Sometimes they doze off and even sleep (yes, that's a good thing!).

I was thrilled to learn more about Mr. Moyo. We connected easily, though I was still a bit afraid to go to Africa. After all, I, too, had been exposed to the negative stories. So I did a lot of research, asked South African friends about it and talked a lot with Future. In the end I decided to go ahead with a collaborative project. MUSIC would pave the way. It has in the past and it would again. After all, proudly and happily sharing my cultures, traditions and faith as a Jew, Israeli and American by way of music, a universal and, more importantly, non-threatening vehicle, is pretty much what I do.

Future and I soon realized we both shared similar aims and objectives and so we co-founded THE HEALING LIGHT PROJECT. In March 2017 I traveled to South Africa to launch our first collaborative effort. My son traveled with me to film and document the events. Two additional musicians were included in Africa; Singer-Songwriter Toby Tobias and a budding young rapper, Isiyaking from the Yoga4Alex organization. You can view photos, video clips and hear two songs we recorded together.

So what happened?

This was much more than just a few musicians from across the world getting together to make music. I will also admit that a trip to Africa was not on my radar at that time. However, it ended up to be a wonderful gift. Meeting Future, the group members, their families, community and home country was an enormous eye opener for us. Yes, we saw the poverty, crime and all the rest. But we were hosted by absolute angels and treated like royalty.

Working together was the easy part. Learning about their lives, their country and especially about a people encompassing love, honor and respect was a gift. On their part, their eyes were opened to our Jewish culture, traditions and music. This, too, was not on their radar when we started the project. Neither was a trip to Israel! In fact we all admitted that we had reservations about how we would even be able to make our very different musical styles work together. Yet, here we are.

In the end what started as a simple outreach to musicians turned out to be the meeting of worlds. We set forth to prove that we may be different in the language we speak, the way we live, the food we eat and our cultural traditions but in the end, as said so eloquently by young 11 year old Brandon said after spending time with us and seeing us in concert, "In the end we are all the same. We're just people".

If that message got through to Brandon then we have achieved our goals. The future indeed looks brighter already!

Music is the vehicle and we are more than just a few modest musicians. Our dreams, goals and purpose on this earth are much more than we ever realized. It's all about building the bridges that connect us to one another. It's about creating the pathways for coming together, people to people, to build strong and lasting friendships across oceans. These are the first steps towards creating a better and more peaceful world!

The second event of the project is this tour in Israel. Future and four members of Amavevane Acapella are all set to come to Israel. They are eager to see the real Israel, meet the people, sing, dance and eat together to learn what can't be learned from what's broadcast on television.

I am already in Israel solidifying dates and musicians who will join us. The people here are eager to meet them, see us work together and be part of this amazing evolution.