WATCH: NY school sends video love letter to Israel

Amid all the serious, contentious and depressing news about the wave of terror that has hit Israel in the last couple of months crowding Facebook news feeds, a little uplifting gem popped up recently. It’s a video produced by SAR Academy, a Jewish day school in Riverdale, New York.

Titled “A Love Letter to Israel,” it’s a version of singer David Broza’s first big hit, “Yihye Tov” (Things Will Be Good), only instead of Yehonatan Geffen’s original lyrics written in the 1970s, the school’s students sing words of encouragement for today’s Israelis as they face this latest round of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings by Palestinian terrorists.

According to SAR Academy principal Rabbi Bini Krauss, the school, which has more than 900 students from nursery through eighth grade, had been trying to think of a way to connect with Israel at this trying time.

“We were thinking, ‘What can we do?'” Krauss told The Times of Israel. “We wanted to do something positive, to effect change in a positive way and reflect the values of our school.”

Over the course of two weeks, staff and students came together to produce the video, which features middle school students performing solos and younger children singing the chorus. Benji Hain, director of student life for the middle school, wrote the Hebrew lyrics, and Shim Craimer, a local cantor and the school’s choir leader, oversaw the musical recording in SAR Academy’s own recording studio.

It was a deliberate decision to have the students sing in their American-accented Hebrew, and for the lyrics to appear onscreen only in Hebrew and not in English translation. Although people everywhere have been enjoying the video and its message, it is primarily aimed at the citizens of Israel. (An English translation of the lyrics appears beneath the video on YouTube.)

To be sure, it isn’t unusual to hear Hebrew in the halls and classrooms of SAR Academy, as Israel and the Hebrew language are fundamental to SAR Academy’s educational mission.

“All our Jewish Studies classes are taught ivrit b’ivrit (‘Hebrew in Hebrew’), and we are very connected through our formal and informal curriculum to the Land of Israel and State of Israel,” Krauss said.

Although it is becoming popular for Jewish day schools to do eighth grade class trips to Israel, Krauss said that SAR Academy does not offer one because most of its students have already visited Israel at least once with their families by the time they get to eighth grade.

The song’s chorus, sung by the little ones, is all about unity and peace. On the other hand, the verses sung by the older students reflect some of the serious conversations they have engaged in with their teachers about different views on the situation in Israel.

One verse addresses the sacrifices that Jews have made — and are still making — to achieve and sustain a modern homeland. Another asks what Diaspora Jews can do to help, and yet another emphasizes Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself.

Although it has not quite gone viral, “A Love Letter to Israel” has garnered more than 7,500 views by press time. Krauss said the school has received only positive feedback about it.

“With all the negative things I hear day after day about American Jews not caring about Israel, it is heartwarming to see this video! I have played it over and over!” wrote one viewer.