Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center and Koolulam Bring 2,000 People Together to Sing "Lean on Me"

We just can't get enough of Koolulam, the extraordinary Israeli mass singing phenomenon, that brings people from all walks of life who hadn't met before to sing popular songs together.

Koolulam has been doing this since 2017. It's a social-musical initiative aimed at strengthening the fabric of society.

The project centers around mass singing events in which large groups of non-professionals come together to form a single collaborative musical creation. At Koolulam, the audience is the artist.

Every participant enters as a unique individual and comes out, while still unique, as a part of a larger whole.

For every Koolulam event, a different well-known song is chosen to be performed. The musical team works hard toward each event, putting together a fresh and innovative arrangement of the chosen song. They write new instrumental arrangements as well as an original three-part vocal arrangement.

On September 14, 2022 the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center invited Koolulam to bring their magic to its sanctuary to remind its members to lean on each other. Watch the results of the voices of 2,000 people singing Lean on Me together!

Enjoy! 

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Koolulam Salutes Bravery of Israel's Medical Crews Fighting Covid-19

Koolulam is the singing project that brings Israelis from all walks of life who hadn't met before to sing popular songs together.

Koolulam has been bringing people together for four years. It's a social-musical initiative aimed at strengthening the fabric of society.

The project centers around mass singing events in which large groups of non-professionals come together to form a single collaborative musical creation. Koolulam brings together people from all walks of life to do one thing: stop everything for a few hours and just sing – together. At b, the audience is the artist.

Every participant enters as a unique individual and comes out, while still unique, as a part of a larger whole.
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For every Koolulam event, a different well-known song is chosen to be performed. The musical team works hard toward each event, putting together a fresh and innovative arrangement of the chosen song. They write new instrumental arrangements as well as an original three-part vocal arrangement.

On Israel’s 73rd Independence Day, Koolulam gathered around 300 of Israel’s medical crews to salute their bravery with facing Covid-19 and to sing the Shlomo Artzi song Tetaaru Lahem (Imagine Yourselves) together at the Torch-Lighting Ceremony on Mt. Herzl.

The English translation appears below.

Enjoy! 

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

ne yourselves a beautiful world

Less sad than it is

And we are walking there with the sun in our pockets

And above the rooftops, The stars

And the time goes by fearless

And I am going to meet her in heaven

 

Imagine yourselves some joy

Beacause it is so rare around here

A cool city in the dark and both of us under the blanket

She caresses me and says

Whatever you wanted will happen tomorrow

And she is full of reflactions of sadness and happiness

 

Imagine yourselves in a middle of a beautiful day

The sky is above you, The love is with you

Yes, That's the way it happened, suddenly she said

I can still remember her, like in a storm

Imagine yourselves me falling into her arms

 

Imagine yourselves a simple world, a room for a night, a house in the rain

Tree scents filled with strawberries, And both of us are drunk

"If we ever break up i'll die", she whispers nervously

Imagine yourselves another chance of suddenly returning to youth

https://lyricstranslate.com

 

 

Teta'aru Lachem (תתארו לכם)

Imagine Yourselves

תתארו לכם עולם יפה

Imagine yourselves a beautiful world

פחות עצוב ממה שהוא ככה

Less sad than it is

ואנחנו שם הולכים עם שמש בכיסים

And we are walking there with the sun in our pockets

ומעל גגות, הכוכבים

And above the rooftops, The stars

והזמן עובר בלי פחד

And the time goes by fearless

ואני הולך לפגוש אותה בגן העדן

And I am going to meet her in heaven

תתארו לכם קצת אושר

Imagine yourselves some joy

כי הוא כל כך כל כך נדיר כאן

Beacause it is so rare around here

עיר מגניבה בתוך החושך ושנינו בשמיכה

A cool city in the dark and both of us under the blanket

והיא מלטפת אותי ואומרת לי

She caresses me and says

"מחר יקרה מה שרצית"

Whatever you wanted will happen tomorrow

והיא מלאה השתקפויות של עצב ושמחה

And she is full of reflaction­s of sadness and happiness

תתארו לכם באמצע יום יפה

Imagine yourselves in a middle of a beautiful day

שמיים מעליכם, האהבה איתכם

The sky is above you, The love is with you

כן, ככה זה קרה, לפתע היא אמרה

Yes, That's the way it happened, suddenly she said

אני עוד זוכר אותה, כמו בסערה

I can still remember her, like in a storm

תתארו לכם אותי נופל לתוך זרועותיה

Imagine yourselves me falling into her arms

תתארו לכם עולם פשוט, חדר ללילה, בית בגשם

Imagine yourselves a simple world, a room for a night, a house in the rain

ריחות עצים מלאים בתות, ושנינו שיכורים

Tree scents filled with strawberri­es, And both of us are drunk

"אם נפרד אני אמות", היא לוחשת וגועשת

"If we ever break up i'll die", she whispers nervously

תתארו לכם עוד הזדמנות לחזור פתאום לנעורים

Imagine yourselves another chance of suddenly returning to youth

תתארו לכם את החיים, זזים אחורה וקדימה

Imagine yourselves life, moving backwards and forward

מה שחסר שוב מתמלא, מה שהיה פתאום ישנו

Whatever is missing is getting filled again, Whatever once was is now here

ואני מביט לתוך עיניה ונגנב בכוח פנימה

And I look into her eyes and lose my mind from the power within

תתארו לכם אותנו מגשימים את כל החלומות

Imagine yourselves us fulfilling all of our dreams

תתארו לכם באמצע יום יפה...

Imagine yourselves in the middle of a beautiful day...

תתארו לכם עולם יפה, פחות עצוב ממה שהוא ככה

Imagine yourselves a beautiful world

ואנחנו שם הולכים, עם שמש בכיסים

Less sad than it is

(תתארו לכם עולם יפה, עיר בתוך החושך)

And we are walking there with the sun in our pockets

עולם פשוט, תתארו לכם קצת אושר

(Imagine yourselves a beautiful world, A city in the dark)

 

Koolulam Brings 8,000 Strangers Together to Sing About Love

The amphitheater in the Mini Israel Park at Latrun is home to some of Israel’s greatest outdoor summer concerts. The concerts at Latrun are conveniently located for the center of the country, and attract some of Israel’s greatest musicians every year. The intimate venue, with beautiful peaceful surroundings is a brilliant place to enjoy great music.

On August 15th, 2019, 8,000 people came together at the Latrun amphitheater to sing about love and how it triumphs everything. This happened thanks to one newlywed couple called Yariv and Elinore, who after participating in Koolulam events that strengthened their love, decided to fund a mass singing event instead of a traditional wedding. 

This enabled thousands to experience what they had felt while attending a Koolulam event almost two years ago. And this is what it looked like... Koolulam is a social-musical initiative, meant to bring together people from any and all walks of life. The idea is to simply stop everything for a few hours and just sing - together.

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Ein Prat Fountainheads Alumni Form New Band Called Tandu in Jerusalem

One of our favorite singing groups has been The Fountainheads, an ensemble of young Israeli dancers, singers, actors and artists, all graduates and students of the Ein Prat Academy for Leadership, who have have joined forces to create new Jewish artistic content for today's Jewish World. 

Since 2011, we haveposted 12 of their videos to great acclaim from Jewish Humor Central readers. But time passes, and groups drift apart. But the four seasoned original members of The Fountainheads stayed together in friendship, forming a new group called Tandu, performing Israeli classics and new compositions in different styles including folk, soul, and jazz.

As Orri J. Avraham wrote in The Jerusalem Post,

When the homegrown Jerusalem acoustic ensemble known as Tandu began performing in 2014, its subtle style and artistic identity had already come to maturity as a result of many months of playing together as a tight-knit group. Sisters Shani and Yahala Lachmish had met their future musical companions, Jeff Petroff and Ofri Tube, years before at the Ein Prat Midrasha, where the seeds of a lifelong friendship were sown amid a shared study of Jewish thought over the summer. Inevitably, this intensive intellectual encounter soon uncovered yet another shared passion: a common love of singing.

A few lively musical endeavors at Ein Prat and a firestorm of new ideas gave birth to the Fountainheads, from whose waters sprang a series of music videos centering mostly on the Jewish holidays. Conceived as elaborate spin-offs of American pop culture songs, and choreographed with the help of dozens of enthusiastic Ein Prat graduates, these hilarious and surprisingly catchy carols quickly became viral hits on social media, outrageously popular in Jewish communities around the world. The band soon found itself touring around North and South America to perform in dozens of synagogues, where its widespread reputation certainly preceded it.

The very name Tandu – Aramaic for “together” – alludes to their penchant to combine ostensibly incompatible melodies and genres into entirely new concepts.

“We are trying to conceive of music that is unbounded by any single form. Superimposing separate styles that may seem to be at odds can actually come out as something totally unexpected and moving,” Petroff explains. His own original meshing of the Jewish Wayfarer’s Prayer into a beautiful soft-rock segment perhaps best demonstrates this notion.

“We still struggle with our identity as a band,” Shani elaborates. “We are often asked to define our brand of music, but find it very difficult to do so without doing it an injustice. We just tell them: Come to our shows and see for yourself.”

Here is a video of Tandu performing the song Mila Tova, which includes a taste of Stevie Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You.

Enjoy!

Koolulam Brings 2,000 People Together to Sing Mahapecha Shel Simcha

We just can't get enough of Koolulam, the singing project that brings Israelis from all walks of life who hadn't met before to sing popular songs together.

Koolulam has been bringing people together for two years. It's a social-musical initiative aimed at strengthening the fabric of society.

The project centers around mass singing events in which large groups of non-professionals come together to form a single collaborative musical creation. Koolulam brings together people from all walks of life to do one thing: stop everything for a few hours and just sing – together. At Koolulam, the audience is the artist.

Every participant enters as a unique individual and comes out, while still unique, as a part of a larger whole.

For every Koolulam event, a different well-known song is chosen to be performed. The musical team works hard toward each event, putting together a fresh and innovative arrangement of the chosen song. They write new instrumental arrangements as well as an original three-part vocal arrangement.

In this video, Koolulam brought 2,000 people together in the Jezreel Valley to sing a new three-part vocal arrangement of the song Mahapecha Shel Simcha (A Revolution of Joy) to celebrate Israel's 70th birthday. It took just under an hour to learn all the parts.

Enjoy! 

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Yavneh Academy Gets the Koolulam Spirit with "Hallelujah"

We've been posting the singing extravaganzas of the Israeli Koolulam ever since they started the project for Israel's 70th Independence Day celebration last year in Tel Aviv.

Koolulam’s popularity has soared since then, with Israelis jumping at the opportunity to come together with thousands of strangers — to sing. But it's popularity hasn't been limited to Israel. The idea has become infections and has stimulated groups of singers to come together in other locales.

The excitement has reached Paramus, New Jersey, home of the 77 year old Yavneh Academy, a modern Orthodox co-ed yeshiva. On Yom Haatzmaut last month, the entire student body came together to sing Hallelujah in their own version of Koolulam.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Koolulam Unites Israel (Tower of David) and America (AIPAC Conference) in Song

On March 24th, at the general session of the AIPAC Annual Conference in Washington D.C., Koolulam brought 18,000 people together to sing an original song for the first time in Koolulam history. 

Together with a simultaneous broadcast of 1,000 Israelis singing the same song at the Old City of Jerusalem, the United States and Israel sent a message - the two countries are connected for good.  

Koolulam is a social-musical initiative, meant to bring together people from any and all walks of life. The idea is to simply stop everything for a few hours and just sing - together.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THEPLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.