Pastor’s birthday bash revel in Jewish songs

JORDAN MOSHE

This was not his usual Barmitzvah and Jewish wedding audience. Far from it. This was a room full of Christian Impact Church congregants who were there to celebrate their pastor, Philip Banda’s, birthday.

Clemance Tsomondo, a member of the congregation and a former employee at Gary Friedman Caterers, contacted Birin in February, asking if he would perform at his pastor’s upcoming birthday. Birin agreed, expecting to play “typical party music” for a small gathering.

Instead, he arrived to find a crowd of about 500 people waiting for him. That didn’t shock him – he is used to performing to large and small groups. He was totally thrown by the fact that every person present knew every word and every dance move to every Jewish song he played. And, not one of them was Jewish.

“I thought I’d find 40 people and a cake,” he said, chuckling. “What I actually found was a 12-piece band, a professional sound system of five speakers, an entire camera crew filming the event, and a crowd of 500 people. I couldn’t believe it.”

His surprise was compounded not only by the fact that he was asked to play Jewish and Israeli music, but that all the men present were wearing kippot (yarmulkes) and tzitzit. This when not a single attendee was Jewish.

“When the pastor walked into the hall, the men immediately got up to dance,” says Birin. “I started playing, and couldn’t believe it when I saw that they knew every song I played. They knew every word and every dance step. That I am used to seeing at Jewish events only.

“The master of ceremonies kept calling out ‘am Yisrael chai (the Jewish nation lives)!’. The men on the dance floor were singing along continuously.”

Birin’s experience has gone viral in the past few weeks, with a video of the celebration doing the rounds on social media. As of Monday this week, the video had more than 30 000 views.

He now knows that the congregants attach particular significance to Jews and Israel as part of their worship, directing much of their prayer and service to Jerusalem.

“Many of them actually travel to Israel every year with the church,” says Birin. “They are extremely Zionistic, centring their beliefs on the importance of Israel. Tears flowed when I played Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim (If I forget thee Jerusalem).”

Since the video’s circulation, Birin has received numerous calls and enquiries from people around the world. “I uploaded the video just before Pesach,” he says. “Since then, 30 000 people have watched it, and plenty have commented. I’ve had calls from rabbis who want to attend the next party, and even from members of the Lemba tribe who want to arrange something like this.”

Birin says he remains amazed by the fact that songs which we believe are played only at Jewish events can resonate so deeply with others outside our community. “We believe that we have something of an exclusivity over songs like this because they are about Israel or written in Hebrew.

“I doubt that those who wrote them would ever have imagined that these songs could cross the divide and be performed anywhere but at a Jewish event, [and that] other people can identify with them. It really is mind-blowing.”