New Shas jingle features duet of party chairman and Obama

Shas spokesman: Sephardim in Israel have much in common with African-Americans like Obama and Eddie Murphy.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
eli yishai 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
eli yishai 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Shas premiered a new jingle for its Internet campaign on Thursday that features a duet of party chairman Eli Yishai and US President-elect Barack Obama. The party borrowed the music from the soundtrack of the hit Beverly Hills Cop movies of the 1980s. It was played in the movies whenever star Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley character took action. German musician Harold Faltermeyer won a Grammy award for the soundtrack. In Shas's version of the song, Eli Yishai's voice is played saying the words "Judaism" and "education" in Hebrew, alternating with Obama uttering his slogan "Yes we can," which Shas also copied for its campaign. Shas spokesman Roy Lachmanovich said the jingle would most likely be used only for on-line ads, and not for its television and radio commerciaals. He said Sephardim in Israel had much in common with African-Americans like Obama and Murphy. "We identify with the fact that Obama gave an opportunity for a different America to its minorities, just like Eli Yishai is helping the disenfranchised in Israel," Lachmanovich said.