For a Change: SHATIL Produces Israel’s First Social Change CD

July 25, 2008

As a finale to its 25th anniversary year, SHATIL last week released a unique, multi-language CD collection of social protest/social change songs featuring top artists including David Broza, Hadag Nachash, Chava Alberstein, Amal Murkus, Dan Toren, Aviv Geffen, Peter Paul and Mary, and Phil Ochs, as well as immigrant artists from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia.

The collection marks a fresh approach to advancing NIF and SHATIL’s agenda. Each set of lyrics tackles a different aspect of Israeli's social reality and inspires listeners to action. The link between politics and big money; ambivalent attitudes toward new immigrants, migrant workers, minorities and other "strangers”; indifference toward environmental degradation; the rise of consumer culture; the effects of occupation and war; and women's inequality all receive their due in this collection. The disc includes songs in Hebrew, Arabic and English. 

CD cover titled "For a Change: Songs for Social Change"

The featured artists — the mainstream performers affiliated with major record companies and the lesser known musicians who funded their own recordings — contributed their songs gratis to this collection. All proceeds from sale of the CD will go directly to the New Israel Fund.

"Music, like other forms of art, has enormous power to shed light on important issues and create sparks of positive change,” says Hadas Eytan, the SHATIL staffer who produced the CD. “Songs of protest like these also carry the seeds of hope for a better future."

Reviews and items about the CD appeared in Yediot Achronot, Globes, Walla and other outlets. 

The CD is available in local music stores in Israel for NIS 39.90 (about $12) and will soon be available in the U.S. 

Click here to learn more.