While antisemitic incidents and tensions among ethnic groups in the United States are on the rise, Grammy Award-winning hip-hop violinist, Israeli-born Miri Ben-Ari, wants to help heal these rifts through music.
She will be performing with the Symphony of Brotherhood choir, which she founded, in collaboration with Minister Derrick Starks, on January 14 at Temple Beth-El in Jersey City.
The concert is devoted to promoting unity between the Black Christian and Jewish communities and to fighting hate through music while celebrating Martin Luther King Day. It is also meant to honor the memories of those who lost their lives in the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7 and in the ongoing war, as well as to highlight the plight of those held hostage by Hamas.
This performance will be hosted by the New Jersey-Israel Commission, of which Ben-Ari is a member, and it will celebrate the connection between the two communities by highlighting their shared experience of oppression through songs of the Holy Land, hip-hop, and gospel music. The program will mix black spiritual and gospel songs with songs in Hebrew.
Making a statement of unity
Ben-Ari, who is producing the event for the Jersey-Israel Commission, said, “In this event, we’re making a statement that we are united, we are supportive of each other, we are an example of the love between these two communities, historically, since the days of Martin Luther King Jr.”
Ben-Ari said she was concerned that anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise in the US and around the world since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
“There are a lot of demonstrations here, social media is all over when it comes to antisemitism, it’s devastating. I call it the ‘new antisemitism’ among the young people,” she said, citing research that said that disturbingly high numbers of younger people think that Israel should cease to exist and that Hamas should take over. “This is a new narrative that we haven’t seen before,” she cautioned. “It’s scary.”
Ben Ari, who has performed all over the world, including at the White House, and has collaborated with Kanye West, Jay Z, Janet Jackson, and Alicia Keys, promised that Sunday’s show would bring the audience together and even get them singing and dancing.
“There will be one special song that I wrote especially for this event. I want the audience to participate with us. And the reason for that is that since October 7, I’ve been experiencing anxiety that I never had in my life. That was new to me. And I found that playing music for me was the only escape... Music is really healing and I want the audience to experience that. The first month after October 7, I was completely dysfunctional.”
During COVID-19, she started working with two Israeli producers, Omri Dehan and Guy (Manro) Lander, and when the war started, Manro returned to Israel to do reserve duty and was sent to serve in Gaza.
They kept in touch and she said he told her, “‘Miri, you know, the only thing that keeps my morale up is knowing that when I come back, for the weekend, we’re going to do some music.’ And I said, ‘But I can’t make music now,” and he said, ‘You have to, because it’s helping me.’ And I said to him, ‘For you, I’m going to start pushing.’” She feels that this story shows “how music gives good energy and heals, even at this tragic time.”
Ben-Ari's website can be visited at https://www.miribenari.com/.