The LAJLC – Los Angeles Jewish Ladies Chorale released the song TEARS this week.
TEARS is the LAJLC’s second music video release since their debut video of “The Lori Song” in 2020.
This newest song is a cover of the touching 2015 release of the 8th Day song.
From the depths of the pandemic, shines a loving light in the Jewish female musical world. The instrumental track was written, composed, arranged, and performed by Shmuel Marcus and Bentzi Marcus, featuring Michael Bogomolnyon piano and re-mastered by Izzy Drihem with the chorale’s vocals track.
LAJLC was founded in 2017 by two mothers who have a strong passion for Jewish music and singing. Since then, they have grown into a dedicated group of talented Jewish women throughout the Los Angeles area who thoroughly enjoy the art and camaraderie of singing three part harmonies to uplift audiences with meaningful Jewish music. LAJLC comprise various levels of musical background and religious affiliations, across many ages and stages. Whether in person or virtual, the choir makes a difference in the lives of its members and listeners alike.
The LAJLC women were drawn to how the lyrics in TEARS suggest an unbroken chain of tears, which appear in a woman’s eyes, one generation to the next as a connection of the mother/child relationship dating back to the Jewish Matriarch Rachel. Rachel tragically died in childbirth and chose to be buried on the road to Bethlehem (Beit Lechem), just outside of Jerusalem in order to comfort her lost generations of Jewish children who would be returning from the road of exile at the end of days. The song’s narrative expresses the sensitivity of the mother/daughter relationship.
When LAJLC’s founder Chaya Rochel Lipsker first approached filmmaker Monika Lightstone to shoot and direct the project, Monika was sitting shiva for her own mother who passed from complications around the time of the pandemic. Monika listened only halfway through the 8th Day Song and felt so deeply moved to tears that she had to stop the audio recording.
Monika called Chaya Rochel back and confessed she couldn’t imagine cutting a video sobbing through it. Lipsker took this raw reaction to the touching lyrics as a sign to push forward with the project in order to touch the hearts of more Jewish women. When she approached Lightstone a few months later, Monika committed to the project, lovingly dedicating it to her own mother Sybil Dorfman whose dementia became exacerbated by isolation due to covid restrictions. All of this came together at a time when the music community as a whole had been hit hard with the inability to perform for live audiences during the peak of covid. Many artists felt that sense of isolation from fans, family and friends.
Lipsker says, “I was compelled to choose a song that would uplift and connect women in this time of need. The chorus of the song ‘and your cries were not in vain, small tears they link into a golden chain’ felt like an apropos message of connection and hope during this time when tears were endless.” Lipsker’s all women’s Jewish choir LAJLC were up for the challenge.
Member ila Sacks shared “We began practicing on zoom and in small groups, trying to maintain our musical connection, as we kept each other safe. The song’s theme linked us together in an unbreakable chain of love desiring to affect all women in the world. It is a song meant to be a healing gift of comfort and hope to Jewish women at such a difficult time.”
The history of the Jewish nation has paved its way of survival in song, laughter, dance and many salty tears. It was Rachel, wife of the patriarch Jacob who alone gave us the ultimate permission to find comfort in weeping upon our sorrows. “To this very day, Rachel weeps for her children. As the mother of all Jewish children, she watches over us and weeps with and for us. She sheds a tear for every lonely child, for every suffering youngster or adult.” (Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Meaningful Life Center). May we find comfort in each other as we uplift our voices to the Conductor in Heaven.
For women only.
Click here to watch Tears.
I so enjoyed that. Thank you