The Goldman's & Avraham Fried "SOUL II SOUL 15" Z Report Interview with Yossi Zweig 3/1/17

with me via telephone should be the producers of the one and only sold to seoul concert yearly concert now in his 15th year cyril and schmule cyril are you there yes i am oh schmule are you there too hi yes yes i am so ladies nice to be with you again it's great to have you guys back here are the goldmans who not only produce the show but also around the organization just sold the soul which of course supports the education of crown heights children with special needs schmule and cyril avram freed bring the house down did you go yeah did you guys call the cops just to let them know that it might be a little rowdier this year we we always call the cops and they always come through to make sure that the mitsubishi should be a safe environment for everyone and they're just as happy to be part of the show as everyone else's they're just as excited as the community is it's a great buzz that everyone's going to be back in the show i got to tell you now that you're mentioning it every year when i do come to the show i think i've missed one or two in the last 10. um there usually is a mobile command center and a a big police presence yes yes and we have the local the local uh community community patrol some room are there right uh we're trying to keep everybody safe and comfortable but bar hashem you know we've had no incidents and uh everybody has a wonderful time so tell me guys 15 years does it really feel like it was that long there's so much work that goes into planning a concert and um you know who whoever is out there in the music world will attest to that but the thrill of the show itself and the cause that comes across and in our discussions to people and approaching them about the concerts and sharing that information at the concert really touches everybody and it's not just the show there's also tremendous value and people coming together in support of jewish special education and caring for their neighbor and children who have special needs i definitely think this is important so tell me cyril since you guys started salt assault since it's it's incumbency since it was a child how has the organization grown and how have things uh been moving along it's grown in the need that there are so many children that do need special education and fortunately we live in new york city new york state that that does offer services to many children and helps them through their therapies but when it comes to education and in particular there is a tremendous need and void that parents find they have to fill in educating their children in the right venue although public schools they have a program there aren't that many and those that are jewish schools and yeshivas that do cater to children with special needs and they are prohibitively expensive tuitions alone for children on the autistic spectrum could be over a hundred thousand for one child per year one hundred thousand parents yeah a hundred and ten thousand for sure and uh parents have to go through a process of raising the money to get that tuition covered whether there's a process they go through in fighting the board of education but all their lawyer season and the tuition fees that must be met and it's terribly taxing and it doesn't matter if it's a two-parent working functional home where there's two incomes coming in or unfortunately a family who's more challenged financially it's all across the board it affects anyone who has a child with special needs that have to cover this tuition it's tremendously taxing and and puts in uh puts a tremendous strain on a family i know that i mean to help your average uh family i would say in new york or in brooklyn even is averaging probably between 50 and 100 120 000 and if 100 of that has to go just toward education for one child even if you're on uh even if you're on city programs for food stamps or for insurance there's still so much that you have to do for the rest of your family it must be terribly taxing it is and i think it's the the pressure and the strain on the family uh to be able to do this you know everybody wants the best education for their children right and especially when you have a child with special needs you know you're hoping against hope that that with the right environment and the right education that uh this child will be able to achieve as much as as is ever to be possible for this person and and you want to provide for that as best you can and when you feel that pressure of trying to do that and you have other children and other yeshivas and your family food bill and your rent and your et cetera et cetera it's just uh and i'm not even talking about all the pressure that of a parent with special these children has in terms of caring for that child and doctors and and therapists and the whole life revolves around trying to make uh trying to make everything work out as best they can for their for their child all their children but their children's special needs take a a great amount of attention and so you lay around layer on top of that this financial burden and it you know really could be overwhelming so really what we're trying to do is to try we're trying to help these families financially and we're also trying to help them by saying that the community understands what you're going through and we're coming together as a community some of us are going to give more some of us are going to give less but we're all going to be there in our hearts and spirits to support you and know that you are loved and you're cared for and that we consider you part of the family yes what's especially gratifying is we've already graduated some children and especially their parents who will come to us and say you were there when we needed you and we're sending you a check as a sponsor this year or we're bringing our family to the concert we know what this is all about and we're past that and we're coming at a different angle in a different position be together with you and help the calls further that's amazing and it must be real real satisfying you know to have somebody that was there and it's incumbency you know come to you and you get to see how much they've grown and how they don't need the program or they've grown up you know outgrown the program but they still want to maintain the cashier that's what i i love about what you guys do is you know you're not you know going to different cities out there or united states or israel trying to raise funds for people who don't really know the community you're doing something in the community for the community anybody in the community can come you're doing a community-wide concert and it's kind of community dependency obviously you spread you know the knowledge about the organization which is what interviews like this are about but the fact that everything is is is going after everybody that lives this and sees this every day i think it's very important and everybody is welcome so the event the 15th annual south of seoul 577 concert i'm from free bring the house that will take place this sunday march 5th zai nadar brooklyn school of music 83 classen avenue between presidents and union streets 7 p.m so this is the first i've been at this concert without from freed but i have never seen the words musical director yuval stuple on the poster yes we're very excited about that so you know for those of you that don't know yuval stupal is a ranger conductor a musician composer composer who lives in the arts israel and uh is the musical director for all of our freed shows in israel he travels up and down to the country of israel with him performing all over the place so they they have developed a very very strong and smooth and wonderful working relationship and when we originally talked about bringing everyone free back to our show by the way it's been seven years since he did sold to seoul really seven years the last salt the soul often freed was at was five seven seven zero wow so seven years since he's been with us and when we started having this conversation you know we talked about saying you know the shows in israel have this special energy and there's great vibe and the we wanted to bring a taste of air to stroll back to new york and back to brooklyn and so part of that was bringing yuval over marriage to seoul with that israeli spirit and hopefully that'll come through in the music and the show and the production and people will really have a grand time you know it's true when you say that schmoly people always comment that the shows in israel have much more energy and they're they're more exciting so we're bringing yuval back tell me who's who's going to be some of the musicians joining uofl on stage this year so we have an all-star group of musicians uh some of the names recognized some you probably won't one you'll certainly recognize is is yaron garcovsky wow say around yourself is going to be on keyboards and uh around rcs on drums and really a group of all-star musicians and uh aaron is also definitely a name and we're familiar with here definitely um i remember i was at the show what was it two or three years ago or eighth day was there i think it was eight days benny friedman i'm not sure and you guys had this this setup on stage where these lights were like in a circle around them and even had led lights in the middle uh that said eighth day you know remember what i'm talking about or not i do like lighting director did do that yeah so you guys always you know it's more than just a show locally with with and you guys never go for four or five small names it's always some of the biggest names in jewish music avraham freed several times mordechai been david lipa and then recently eighth day and benny friedman and eighth day so what what tell me what kind of lighting show can we expect this sunday well uh for this show it's actually gonna be our largest lighting uh show ever really i'll tell you something it's interesting that when we talk to the people the you know the professionals that work with us the lighting people the sound people and so on you know what they all say to us is that you know your show is a show that could be taking place in madison square garden you know you you don't you don't hold back from doing the production values of a great big show but you're doing it in a small intimate venue and and uh you know they said to me like why don't you go to a really giant place you know the way you're doing it i said well you know we kind of like the idea that we're in a theater that is intimate and everybody feels close to the performer there's a certain warmth and and so on that we we feel our show brings that makes it kind of unique but the lighting the lighting setup this year is going to be by far by far by far bigger than we've ever done before in fact we need like in fact we need uh like three days of setup which is challenging us in terms of getting in and out and being able to hang everything that we need to hang so the team that's working on that you know has been back and forth at the at the venue and planning how they're going to be able to sneak a few hours in to do this and a few hours do that and then we're going to be working full-time from what's the shabbos all the way through showtime to make it a spectacular evening sounds amazing i got to tell you guys shmuley and cyril goldman talking to us by telephone and discussing the of the soul 15th annual concert from free this sunday march 5th in brooklyn school of music tickets are surely there are still tickets available some right there are some tickets available see this year we've set up a new ticket number it's three four seven six eight eight soul soul three four seven six eight eight soul there you guys have it three four seven what was it six eight eight s-o-u-l correct there we go we can go to jewish tickets dot com it's been that way for a few years now right it has it's been that way probably since five seven six nine or five seven six eight it's probably the past eleven years we've had it oh wow i was gonna i was gonna say since i'm afraid who's there last but yeah wow a little scary you know when we first did it it was a little scary we did it because we felt it was the right thing to do right for the community and uh there aren't many separate seating concerts i don't know for some people it probably is a little bit of a challenge for them to feel like they want to go with their with their spouse and so on um but at the same time there are a lot of people out there who probably don't go to concerts because they they rather sit in a separate seating environment and uh so we try to accommodate everybody the people need to be close to each other we try to get them as close as possible to each other and for some people for some people it's healthier to sit a few seats away from yourself we're not gonna get into that right now but i was gonna tell you guys that you know the seeing the volunteers or they're wearing the salt to soul shirts making sure things run on time or passing out pamphlets or or selling cds or just directing people there's always an amazing feel for some of your volunteers and of course organization the website for the organization is soul iisoul.org at seoul ii soul.org uh general information and sponsorship of opportunities are available for that you got to call their outline 718-604-1234 i'm hoping to join you this year yet again it's a little bit more of a drive than i'm used to but uh as you guys know i i love this concert and i try to attend it whenever i could we're very happy that you do always a pleasure i want to wish the two of you much at sloka i hope you raise enough funds that you never have to do this again although i got to tell you i enjoy a yearly concert that i know is going to be well produced well let's hope that let's hope that we just do a concert for the sake of having the simha and then the month of other and get ready for purim and uh in a happy way and that the cause is no longer necessary because all children will be healthy i mean thank you very much looking forward to seeing you again this sunday tickets available through jewishtickets.com that's your best bet there are still a little a few tickets available so i'm telling you you better run to the nearest store or call jewish tickets.com today shmuley and cyril thanks looking forward to seeing you on sunday thank you see you later there we go ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen surprise guest with us via telephone street the one and only avraham freed everyone are you there yes i am here i've been watching these videos the last week or two where in the world is out from freed where are you of rebel well looking out the window i think i'm back in crown heights crown heights so of rambo four days eight hours 42 minutes and 23 seconds are you ready we are ready always ready hashem this concert is is uh very special to me obviously my neighborhood my fellow hasidi my fellow friends my fellow neighbors i'm looking forward to an evening of our bringing and um hopefully we can inspire some people and uh and be happy because it's other so through music no better way to be happy and uh get in touch with our numbers and uh and climb higher i i'm excited to see you and you've all together i i don't think i've experienced that in america it's been a while hasn't it yes i just had him with me in melbourne actually and was amazing so he's going to be um a little tired i imagine [Laughter] went back there's israel and he's coming coming in tomorrow for a friday rehearsal absolutely yuval brings a whole new element to the show uh it'll be spectacular and uh as soon as i get a little sleep i'll be ready to go well i am looking forward to rimmel i'm excited you know it's been seven years we just discussed this with schmule and cyril your last there five seven seven oh and now it's five seven seven seven of rimmel's returning seven's a good number and absolutely and simcha is great but i'm just worried about bringing down the house i don't know if crown heights is quite ready for that yet we'll find out we'll find out we'll find out but um you know i think i think it was it was an excellent choice that over the years they had other performers and other entertainers and i think that was um i think that was a good call obviously to to show the different colors and different shades and uh you know our industry is is booming for hashem with so many talented people and i guess minister miami after seven years it's it's my turn again so i am ready hashem and uh bring it on i'll bring the house down and not just for a local cause and a local concert but i mean uh i'm sure you know some of the families that have used khaste soltasol or have needed their services so this is probably more and dear to your heart than than most other events that you're performing at indeed we shouldn't overlook the fact that this is not just an evening of uh entertainment and and having fun and singing and this is for a very very very worthy cause and many people in the community know good work that shmuley and cyril goldman do for the community it's a labor of love for them i think they're they're truly you know unsung heroes they took this upon themselves years ago and um it never looked back and i think it's a tremendous uh service i think we owe them uh to come out in big numbers and support this wonderful organization and it's actually an evening of obvious israel you're supporting fellow members of the community who need help to pay for tuition for special needs children that's why we call it salt is all because that's what it's all about you gotta dig deep down and touch the soul of your your own soul and then you can touch others so this is what it's all about giving and helping and yes singing and dancing to make it all in a happy way i just realized also design other another so many compliments on that on that uh time we had together really really really hashem i'm looking forward but you know within with a new carpool and uh with the new comes it's needs a new album so i'm hoping like by every time uh actually okay it's we're almost there the new album is coming along nicely by the way not to go off topic but the next one is is is is irregular or you're this sure in english where are we holding in the standings right now strike three you missed them all i missed them all the israeli one the israeli one yeah so if i wasn't doing all the traveling i could have finished the album a month ago by the way i hear melbourne has some really nice studios you might you might have stopped by to do some recording work when you were there actually i had no time but um god's willing after this assault is all i'm back in the studio to finish i have a few songs to finish and then that's it we're done all right remember i want to wish y'all sluakaraba both on the album and on the show uh afraid looking out there and i'm looking forward to seeing you personally sunday night amen looking forward to yesterday take care everyone have a great day avraham freed right there ladies and gentlemen sold us all as mentioned jewishtickets.com it's going to be a night to remember please make sure that you attend