The new charity box: no coins, just tunes

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of June 26, 2009 / 4 Tammuz 5769

For as long as there has been modern Jewish music, there have been

Jewish music fundraising concerts. Then, in 1988, the ante was upped

when the first Lincoln Center benefit for HASC (Hebrew Academy for Special Children) was professionally recorded and later sold as an additional fundraiser. More than 20 years later, against the backdrop of an economy that is leaving many charities whistling in the wind, two organizations have released to the public brand new music, professionally produced, recorded and distributed, in order to raise funds not for the performers but for the charity.

Several weeks ago a former member of Hatzalah of the Five Towns and

the Rockaways, Yudi Abraham, released “Hu,” a two-song ‘single’ to

benefit Hatzalah of Union County, based in the New Jersey communities

of Elizabeth and Hillside, where he now resides. Now a Hatzalah

volunteer there, Abraham composed both songs and performed them with his next-door neighbor, the popular Jewish music performer Ira Heller.

The disk got the full treatment of a radio premiere on “JM in the AM

with Nachum Segal” and is available at Judaica stores everywhere for

$4, with all proceeds to Hatzalah. (Full disclosure: I helped found

Hatzalah of Union County a number of years ago and am still involved

with the organization.)

Two weeks ago a full-length album called “Avodas Tzedaka” also premiered, a presentation of A T.I.M.E. (A Torah Infertility Medium of

Exchange), which estimates 9,000 babies have been born since 1994 to

couples its helped with infertility issues, marital counseling and

even adoption.

The album was the brainchild of Shloime Kaufman, who performs most of

the songs, joined by Abie Rotenberg, Dovid Gabay, Baruch Levine,

Michoel Pruzansky and A.K.A. Pella. It certainly doesn’t sound like a

charity project: in additional to the top vocal talent it boasts first

class musical arrangements by Tony Coluccio, whose day job is to

produce songs for some of the biggest names in the pop music industry.

The album even boasts that holy grail of Jewish music –– a selection

with English lyrics that isn’t a treacly love song to the Almighty.

“Music has a special power,” said A T.I.M.E. founder Brany Rosen.

“The language of Shamayim [heaven] is music. I heard this from Rav

Avraham Chaim Feuer: A little baby, if you sing to it, it calms down.

If everyone is talking at the same time you can’t make out what

they’re saying but if thousand of people sing together you can hear

them.” Music relieves stress, she added, and stress plays “a

tremendous role” in infertility.

On a more practical note, she said, “We hope to cover some of our

bills with this. We hope that with the money we raise a lot of

wonderful babies will be born.”

Although “Avodas Tzedaka” has a professional sheen to it, “we’re not

talking about an album that cost $70,000,” said Shloime Kaufman. “Not even $40,000” –– a more common price tag for a Jewish music recording.

Donors covered about half of the cost; the organization laid out the rest. He hopes to begin turning a profit for A T.I.M.E. in about a month. “With your help,” he said, laughing.

Kaufman is passionate about A T.I.M.E. and about his music. “It’s an emotional, meaningful album,” he said. “Every single song –– there’s a reason why it’s there.”

Yudi Abraham, known to colleagues in Hatzalah as RL-92 during his

year in kolel at Sh’or Yoshuv, came up with the idea of a two-song

“single” as a fundraiser and then rounded up the necessary

sponsorships nearly single-handedly.

“That was the hardest part of the entire project,” he said. “So many

people said, ‘If it was a different year...’ For every one I got, I

got 15 to 20 no’s. Believe me.”

He knows there’s stiff competition in the Jewish music market for

consumers’ limited disposable income, including a number of new

artists.

“Within May and June there are eight debut albums. What makes this

different is that buying the album for $3.99 helps us go on saving

lives,” he said. “The bottom line is it’s about Hatzalah. We want

people to enjoy the songs but we want people to buy the CD for

Hatzalah.”

Abraham, who also played keyboard on one of the songs, said he knew

he was doing the right thing in pursuing the project when he met up

with Ozer Babad, whom a friend had recommended he engage to produce

the single.

He was on his way home to Hillside when he called Babad to introduce

himself. Babad said he was also New Jersey-bound. “Where are you now?

... On the Staten Island Expressway? ... Me too. Where? ... At Exit

12? Me too.”

Soon they were sitting in Babad’s car on the side of the road

listening to one of the songs Abraham had composed. Babad liked it and

signed on to the project.

“If there was ever hashgacha pratis (divine intervention) –– just

giving you a little sign that you’re heading in the right direction,”

Abraham noted.

In some ways the economics of the Jewish music business have come to

mimic the secular market, albeit on a much smaller scale, Babad said.

“It used to be that the show was a business card for the CD. Today

it’s the opposite. The show is the moneymaker,” and for most up and

coming performers “it’s not even the show, it’s the wedding.”

Tzedaka albums may just be the next big thing in the Jewish music

business, Babad believes. “Tzedaka (charity) organizations need money

–– people don’t have a lot of money to buy CDs. So if you can give

tzedaka and buy a CD at the same time, it’s a no-brainer.”

Sheya Mendlowitz, who put HASC on the map with the concert series he

founded, believes quality will be one of the keys to success for music

albums released by charities in the future.

“If there’s good material then it will have success. And if it’s done

for the right cause. It shouldn’t be just that people are using the

organization as a vehicle to sell the music.”