Israeli singers to perform at UN to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day
Miri Mesika, David D’or and Amir Benayoun will sing in Hebrew, English and Arabic.
By AMY SPIROUpdated: JANUARY 8, 2018 02:05 The Last Survivor to be performed at the UN in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018
Three well-known Israeli singers will take an unusual stage later this month and perform in English, Hebrew and Arabic.Miri Mesika, David D’or and Amir Benayoun will appear together at the UN in New York on January 29 and perform a song in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is marked on the day of the liberation of Auschwitz.“These days the Holocaust survivors who remain are diminishing while antisemitism is once again raising its ugly head,” said Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who invited the trio to perform. “The duty to remember and to pass the message on to the next generations should be a guiding light for the international community.”Messika, D’or and Benayoun will be singing an original song, The Last Survivor, which was written by Benayoun and Moshe Klughaft.“I stay the last one of them all,” the lyrics read, “But all of them still living in my soul/ I stayed alive, but inside already dead/ and under my pillow still hiding a piece of bread.”The singers released a video clip of the song on Sunday, which features photos of Holocaust survivors alongside images of them from their youth.“Soon, the survivors will no longer be able to speak,” said Benayoun. “And it is our job, as the coming generations, to be their mouthpiece and carry out their will. We will also have to fight Holocaust deniers, whenever they are, and this song, in three languages, will be one of our tools.”Mesika, D’or and Benayoun are among Israel’s best-known singers. Mesika has been named female singer of the year multiple times and has been a judge on Israel’s The Voice. D’or represented Israel at Eurovision in 2004, has performed for former US president Barack Obama and sang Avinu Malkeinu (“Our Father, Our King”) at Shimon Peres’s funeral – at the late president’s request.