Musician performs songs of hope near burnt remains of parents’ home

Standing on the charred remains of his murdered parents’ home in Be’eri, Daniel Weiss thanks them for raising him and proceeds to sing an ode to resilience.

Weiss, a musician in his 20s whose father, Shmulik, was slain in the kibbutz on October 7 and whose mother, Yehudit, was abducted to Gaza by Hamas terrorists and subsequently murdered there, sings at a commemoration ceremony “Muchrahim Lehamshich Lenagen,” a tune whose title means “We must keep playing.”

Weiss, who survived the massacre in Be’eri, lets the music do most of the talking. The song is based on a metaphor offered during the 1973 Yom Kippur War by then Israel Air Force commander Benny Peled in an iconic speech that likened the force’s desperate fight amid huge losses to an orchestra that plays as its instruments break down. Weiss shakes his fist as he sings the refrain.

Miri Aloni, a legendary Israeli folk singer, is brought by a wheelchair for the ceremony, organized by survivors for dozens of journalists visiting Be’eri today.

Some of the listeners huddle in a sukkah, a ceremonial hut that is still standing in the manicured yard, as the killings took place on the final day of the Sukkot holiday.

Amid thuds from shelling by Israeli troops of Gaza, Aloni and Weiss perform “Prachim BaKaneh,” or “Flowers in the barrel,” a song about longing for peace that mentions Gaza and Rafah.

Holding back tears, Weiss tells those gathered that he is playing on the first guitar his father bought him. He ends the concert with a song that he describes as a prayer, “Yamim Shel Sheket,” whose title means “Days of Quiet.”