Considering the above factors, as well as the fact that the fundraising campaign scene was quite flooded, we knew we needed to create an out-of-the-box campaign that would make people sit up and take notice.

We decided to produce an original music video to be sung by all of the kehilla members, whose release would launch and promote the fundraising campaign. The entire project involved a multi-layered strategy:

1. The theme of the song, which was set to the tune of R’ Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz’s V’harenu, and written by us in collaboration with Miriam Israeli, was about Klal Yisrael’s yearning to return to our shuls – a message that would resonate with Jews across the globe and also strategically evoke a desire to help build a new shul.
2. By producing a music video featuring the kehillah families, we were able to turn the fundraising component on its head. Rather than having shul members feel they were asking a favor from family and friends, they produced something unique and inspirational that they were excited to share.
3. To build up anticipation and excitement for the campaign among kehillah members, each participating family was only given one line of the song to practice and record. No one heard the entire song until the campaign launch!
4. This strategy also became the concept for the campaign theme: My Piece in the Masterpiece. The idea was that if every person performs his small part, together we can create a song…and build a shul.
5. In order to generate even more excitement, we made the recording day into a fun event for the entire family and hired a photographer to take a gorgeous family picture in the studio.
6. The worldwide debut of the original music video launched the 2-day fundraising campaign, and served as a powerful promotion for the campaign, as all participants were eager to share the video link (embedded on the campaign page) with all of their family and friends.

The Execution

The logistics of creating this music video were extremely complicated!

1. We started by holding in-person meetings with kehillah members to explain the project and get them pumped up (a project in itself when dealing with a skeptical British audience!). We produced a pre-campaign trailer video to build excitement.
2. Next, we created digital brochures with the trailer video, which were sent to all former members now living overseas. Many of them were excited to participate in the video.
3. After arranging the music, our music arranger (one of the famed Briskman brothers) cut the entire song into single-line parts, including harmonies, and distributed them to each of the participating families.
4. The recording took place in seven different studios located in Israel, England and South Africa! At each location we had a videographer, photographer, sound team and music arranger.
5. As complex as this project already was, Covid made it doubly so! All family time slots needed to be carefully scheduled to maintain social distancing and other Covid requirements.
6. After the recording was finished, the work began to splice together all of the individual pieces into one majestic whole. This meant many hours of matching voices with people, adding in the harmony, and joining them together in one unbroken song.
7. Meanwhile, we planned and prepared material for the actual 2-day crowdfunding campaign. This included creating a landing page, preparing and sending out publicity material, setting up a Covid-friendly call center and preparing call and email scripts.