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Greg Lauren

A Musical Tour of Israel (HD)

Just a little back story.

In a past life, besides having a day gig as a trader on Wall St., my night gig was that of a semi-pro wannabe DJ/producer.

gregvivo

For those old enough (and sober enough) to remember the Global Underground series, Twilo in New York as well as for those who attended the Winter Music Conference in Miami…I was part of that scene.

I always had an emotional connection to Israel, but when it came to Judaism, I was peripherally involved at best.

A few years ago that changed and I came to find a new, deeper (in my eyes at least) Jewish identity. One that required that I give up “the scene”, which I was in fact happy to do. But I still hadn’t given up the music. All I did was manage to channel it in a different direction:

In case you’re wondering, I hadn’t completely stopped venturing into DJ circles but I kept it very specific. This is from a gig at Little Pinkas Bar in Jerusalem, where the owner comes from an observant family.

greglaurendjtzitzit

Upon meeting me for the first time and seeing my kippah and tzitzit he exclaims:

“When you come to play, I want you to come in dressed like this. I get a lot of secular Israeli hipsters here. I want the people to see that you can be da’ati and do this.”

There were 5 guys in yeshiva (including myself) and 6 girls learning in seminary who came out that night. It’s a small space so we and the regular hipster crowd packed it in quite nicely. Secular and religious were socializing beautifully and the owner said that he hadn’t anything like this in a long time.

This is a portion of the night.

The music journey continues. Here you can find the entire anthology.

 http://www.house-mixes.com/profile/greg%20lauren

About the Author
Born in Ukraine and grew up in the NYC metro area. After working as a trader on Wall St. for 8 years, made aliyah in 2010. After living in Jerusalem, Tzvi returned to NYC and started a company to import boutique wines from Judea & Samaria. He uses his business and my website TheNationofIsrael.com as a vehicle educate young Jews about Israel, the Middle East and Judaism. His ultimate goal is to return to Israel and inspire young Russian-speaking Jews in the US to make aliyah.