A few days before the attacks of October 7, singer and musician Eli Schwebel was doing shows overlooking the Kotel, at the Jerusalem Plaza Hotel, and on the rooftop of Aish HaTorah. He was full of joy. On October 9, he was singing at a funeral where 1,000 came to mourn Yehuda Gedaliah, who was killed in the attacks.
“My first reaction was shock, but it quickly tuned to anger,” Schwebel told The Jewish Press of his reaction to what happened on October 7.
While many Americans in Israel arranged to leave, even it meant first having to fly to another country first, Schwebel decided not to immediately return to his home in New York City. Instead, the solo artist, known for founding the musical group Lev Tahor, opted to listen to what his heart was telling him and ended up staying for many months, doing dozens of performances.
“I looked at myself in the mirror,” Schwebel recalled. “I said, ‘What did G-d put you on this world for? You are going to run away afraid, while Israeli children run into the bomb shelters or are attending the funerals of their relatives? In life, you have to use everything you have, whatever tools you have to serve people. Music is what I know how to do.”
He said that he went against the advice of friends who told him it was too dangerous to stay. “I show love to people and engage people with my personality,” he said. “I am the type of person to hug and give chizuk [encouragement] even in the toughest of times. My tachlis was clear – I needed to stay. I didn’t really think about going home.”
“There are Israeli heroes who sacrificed their lives for the country, and their families are experiencing great pain and the country has felt the pain,” he continued. “With the hostages, there is great uncertainty and trauma of not knowing their fate and hoping they will return safely.* When thinking about that, how could I not do a small thing, try to raise morale, to play my music, to talk to people? That was the least I could do in an impossible situation.”
Schwebel said he performed at army bases and in some dangerous locations. “I was afraid at some points when there were rockets flying overhead,” he recalled. “It made a big impression on some soldiers that a singer from America would come during these times. It is easy to show achdus [unity] in good times, but when you do it in bad times, it really resonates with people. Some were crying.”
He estimates that he did 38 performances. He praised Israeli stars like Ishay Ribo who also performed for soldiers, and said he felt empowered to perform with such artists as Aharon Razel, Yehuda and Nachman Solomon, and the group Shotei HaNevuah. But one legendary Jewish music star stood out.
“Avraham Fried was unbelievable in that he is such a source of love,” Schwebel said. “Soldiers flocked to him. There are certain people who have a capability to give chizuk, and you could see how he really helped a lot of them.”
Schwebel’s father, Rivie, was a member of the famed Jewish music group Dveykus. He said during this time he often played “Acheinu” which his dad performed many times. When he looked out at crowds in Israel, in the months he played after October 7, there were occasions where he had to fight back tears.
“I experienced the love of G-d amid the terror, which is such a dichotomy and a mind trip,” he said. “It’s like, what’s going on here? If you start to think about it, it’s too much to handle, but when you are active in the moment, you just look at it and that your mission is to play music every day. In reflecting on it. there’s a combination of sadness and heartbreak mixed with a joy of finding some strength amid the horror.”
Schwebel said being in Israel in these tumultuous times results in a far greater perspective than what is shared in American media. “People focus on the battlefield element of the war. But there is also psychological warfare,” he said. “Those who want to destroy Israel want all of the people to be in a panic. To be from America and choose to stay there for several months, I wanted to help the morale and do my part to help against the psychological warfare. The soldiers and the people of Israel must know they are not alone.”
The war against Israel is multi-faceted, he said, and while in most respects he could not be of help, in this one way, he could.
“Our enemies dream of us collapsing,” Schwebel said. “This is not only in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense, and they want us to believe there is no hope. But for me, to see the smiles when I was singing, it is of course a very small thing in the context of everything that is happening – but for someone to have a moment of joy is a big deal to me.
“Did playing music solve any crisis? No. But it is a piece of defiance against the psychological war, signaling that while Klal Yisrael has sustained a tremendous blow, and there is intense suffering, we will not be broken.”
*Editor’s note: Schwebel’s interview for this story took place before the tragic discovery of six of the hostages’ bodies last week.
