Dancing at the Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, once used as a symbol for the Nazi party, was the unlikely site of a music video shoot about the endurance of the Jewish people.

78 years after surviving the atrocities of the Holocaust, members of the Holocaust Survivors Band joined Jewish superstar singer Gad Elbaz in a historic performance at Berlin’s famed gate.

Saul Dreier, a drummer aged 92, and Reuwen “Ruby” Sosnowicz, an 89-year-old accordionist, backed up Elbaz at the site once used by Adolf Hitler for anti-Semitic speeches.

The music video is being directed by New York filmmaker Daniel Finkelman, who was assisted by the Head Shliach of Berlin, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtel, to accomplish this historic feat.

“Hundreds gathered to witness the Kiddush Hashem,” Finkelman told COLlive, about the crowd that gathered to take in the unlikely spectacle.

“There was a German lady in the audience that heads an organization fighting Anti-Semitism – she was so emotional about it all, and told me that her father was a Nazi, and she vowed to do everything in her power that this should not be repeated. She couldn’t believe we actually did this smack in the middle of Berlin.”

The song, “Let the Light Shine On,” is about “spreading light in the darkest places,” Finkelman said.

It was written by composer Cecelia Margules and is being co-produced by Aharon and David Orian.

“To perform in Berlin with the Holocaust Survivor Band was surrealistic yet powerful,” Elbaz told COLlive. “I was extremely touched by the solidarity displayed by the local Jewish community headed by Chabad, as always,” he said.

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