VIDEO: Christians from around the world send Sukkot greetings to Israelis with Hebrew song

Though unable to gather in Jerusalem for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s Feast of Tabernacles, Christians from abroad still found a way to send their message of love and support to Israel. 

As part of its 42nd annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration being streamed online to Christians around the world, the ICEJ produced a music video of the Israeli song “Bitfilah Amen” with performances by musicians and singers from more than 30 nations around the world singing in Hebrew.

The song – translated With a Prayer, Amen – was Israel’s entry in the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest. ICEJ debuted the music video at the Feast on opening day and then released it on social media tallying nearly 100,000 views in just three days.

Many of the Christians performing the song for this video compilation were dressed in their nations’ native garb, reminiscent of the widely popular Jerusalem March, which takes place during Sukkot and is a festive array of representatives of all the nations that “came up to Jerusalem” for the feast. 

In recent years, the ICEJ celebration had drawn 5,000 participants from overseas and another 1,000 locals. Having been forced online the past two years, however, the Feast is managing to reach and engage more people from around the world, even the new Israeli government.

The ICEJ Feast, which began on Monday, is being streamed to a global audience for eight days. On Friday, a multinational prayer meeting was hosted online from Succat Hallel in Jerusalem.

Senior Israeli leaders are addressing the audience at the ICEJ’s Feast this year including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai, Minister of Tourism Yoel Razvozov and President Isaac Herzog.

The nations represented in the music video include singers and musicians from Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany, Ireland, Macedonia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Uganda, UK and USA. The music was arranged by the award-winning recording artist Trevor Sampson of South Africa along with Ilay Sidi of Israel. The video was edited by Carlos Magno Sales of Bolivia.

The song, originally performed at Eurovision by the singer Liora, is a prayer for peace and divine blessing around the world. Check out the lyrics here.

The ICEJ has branches in more than 90 nations.

For detailed information about the Feast of Tabernacles online event and schedule, click here.

Register for the Feast of Tabernacles “Days of Elijah” event by choosing from one of the three packages available.