Stars Unite for Rubashkin

By COLlive reporter

22 leading Jewish musicians are teaming up to record a rare musical tribute to imprisoned Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, COLlive.com has learned.

Famous names like Mordechai Ben David, Avraham Fried, Lipa Schmeltzer and others will be joining in a New York studio in an effort to shed light on ongoing injustices to the Lubavitcher businessman from Postville.

“The Rubashkin case has united the Jewish commmunity like never before,” Danny Finkelman, the project’s initiator and producer, told COLlive. “The goal is to unite the many people who care about Sholom Rubashkin through music.”

The song is based on the classic “Unity” originally written by MBD and Shea Mendelowitz, now with some revised lyrics by singer/songwriter Moshe Kravitsky.

Rubashkin, the former manager of Agriprocessors in Iowa, was sentenced to 27 years after being convicted of bank fraud and other charges, a sentence which was widely decried as unjust and excessive.

The single, to be released before Rosh Hashana, will include all new arrangements by Ilya Loshinsky and will be released as an audio and video clip.

The video will be directed by award winning filmmaker Marcio Arenas, a teacher at the NY Film Academy. The video will include live footage of Rubashkin and the Rubashkin family.

The project is sponsored by TelTech Corp, a phone technologies company.

“We want to raise awareness of Sholom Rubashkin’s plight, hopefully resulting in donations which will help pay for his defense fund,” said Finkelman, who also directs the Sparks Boys Choir.

Sholom Rubashkin’s wife, Mrs. Leah Rubashkin, “was very touched when we told her about the project,” related Finkelman. “Some of their children will join us in the recording studio for the video in the near future.”

COLlive was told other singers included will be Ohad, Yitzchok Meir Helfgot, Yossi Green, Yeedle, Yossi and Avi Piamenta, Benny Friedman, Dedi, Shloime Gertner, Aron Rizel and Ken Burgess.

They will be joined by Gad Elbaz, Dovid Gabay, Berri Weber, Shlomo Simcha, Yehuda Green, Dovid Stein, Michoel Schnitzler, Shloime Dachs, Dovid Dachs, Yossi Goldstein, Sruly Werdyger, Bentzi Marcus, the Sparks Choir and the Shira Choir.

“The song represents a living example to our youth,” said Finkelman. “When they see so many people uniting for a cause, caring for the plight of a fellow Jew. This, I hope, will really make a difference.”