Singer/Songwriter of "Superman (It's Not Easy)" Rededicates Song to Gaza Hostages

Singer/Songwriter John Ondrasik released his hit song Superman (It's Not Easy) in 2001 and it quickly became an anthem for first responders, men and women in uniform, and the broken everyday people working to heal our country from the 9/11 attack.

Now, 24 years later, Ondrasik, who is better known by his stage name, Five for Fighting, has written an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal explaining how the song has found a second life dedicated to Alon Ohel and the other hostages being held in captivity in the tunnels of Gaza.

Ondrasik, who is not Jewish but is married to Jewish executive producer Carla Berkowitz – with whom he has two children, writes:

I turned to “Superman,” hoping to remind the world that the hostages are people, not statistics. They are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Music would bring out this shared humanity after the Jewish people experienced their worst trauma since the Holocaust, just like music uplifted an America shattered by 9/11. 

In this video Ondrasik collaborates with current hostage Alon Ohel’s mother Idit, brother Ronen, and family and friends with this new version of Superman to support Alon and all hostages and their families. 

Throwback Thursday Musical Showcase: Ed Ames Sings "Son of a Travelin' Man" on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969

Ed Ames (Edmund Urick) (1927-2023) was a pop singer and actor. He was also part of the popular 1950s singing group with his siblings, the Ames Brothers.

Best known for his singing career with three of his brothers as The Ames Brothers, and his acting in the role of Mingo, a Cherokee tribesman in the TV series Daniel Boone, Ames was a committed Zionist and president of the California chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.

In this video from the Ed Sullivan Show 55 years ago, Ames sang his 1969 hit song "Son of a Travelin' Man".

Enjoy!

 

   #Throwback Thursday      #TBT

Remembering Steve Lawrence, Nightclub, TV, Recording Star and Actor for More Than 50 Years

Steve Lawrence, who was born Sidney Liebowitz on July 8, 1935 and enjoyed a 50 year performing career, died on March 7 in Los Angeles of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

The son of a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav, he was best known as a member of the pop vocal duo "Steve and Eydie" with his wife Eydie Gormé, and for his performance as Maury Sline, the manager and friend of the main characters in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. Steve and Eydie first appeared together as regulars on Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1954 and continued performing as a duo until Gormé's retirement in 2009.

As Robert D. McFadden wrote in The New York Times,

The Liebowitz boys were all musically gifted. By 8, Sidney was singing in a synagogue choir, and by 12 he was composing songs. He dropped out of Thomas Jefferson High School before graduation to sing in bars and nightclubs.

He began calling himself Steve Lawrence, the given names of two nephews. He won “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” at 15 and sang for a week on Godfrey’s morning radio show.

Billed as “Steve and Eydie” in Carnegie Hall concerts, on television and at glitzy hotels in Las Vegas, the remarkably durable couple remained steadfast to their pop style as rock ’n’ roll took America by storm in the 1950s and ’60s.

Long after the millennium, they were still rendering songs like “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” “Just in Time” and “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” for audiences that seemed to grow old with them.Record sales put him in the top ranks of America’s pop singers in the early 1960s, and despite competition from rock groups, his club and concert dates with Ms. Gorme remained enormously popular.

As a tribute to the class act of Steve and Eydie, we're sharing a long medley of music by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart or Oscar Hammerstein. Songs: The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, Falling In Love With Love, A Wonderful Guy, I Married An Angel, Where Or When, My Heart Stood Still, Blue Moon, Manhattan, Isn't It Romantic, Glad To Be Unhappy, It Might As Well Be Spring, Spring Is Here, It Never Entered My Mind, Bewitched Bothered And Bewildered, My Romance, My Funny Valentine, With A Song In My Heart.

With special thanks to Buzz Stephens for posting this video on YouTube.

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. 

Hasidic Singer Shulem Lemmer Engages in "Real Talk" with Israel National News

Shulem Lemmer, known professionally simply as "Shulem," is an American Belz Hasidic singer from Borough Park, Brooklyn, in New York City. He is the first born-and-raised Haredi Jew to sign a major record contract with a leading label, Universal Music Group, under its classical music Decca Gold imprint.

Before becoming a full-time singer, Lemmer was marketing director at a technology firm start-up based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He also works as a cantor during the High Holidays at Congregation Ahavath Torah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Englewood, New Jersey.

In April 2019, Lemmer sang “God Bless America” at Citi Field. He has toured in American and Israeli cities and sung in London, Krakow, Frankfurt, and Zurich.

The music on his November 2019 major label debut album, The Perfect Dream, is produced by Jon Cohen and accompanied by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It consists of English, Hebrew, and Yiddish songs, including the Israeli song Jerusalem of Gold, and Bring Him Home from the Broadway musical Les Misérables. The title track of the album, The Perfect Dream, is an original song written for Lemmer by lyricist Don Black.

We saw Shulem perform in concert in February 2020, just as the pandemic was starting, at Anshei Emuna, our synagogue in Delray Beach, Florida.

Here is the Arutz 7 "Real Talk" interview followed by Shulem singing A Million Dreams, from the film The Greatest Showman.

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.