‘I believe that the good will come’

Israeli singer songwriter Bat Ella is performing in London and Manchester next month. In Israel, Bat Ella performs across the country in major venues and at festivals, including the prestigious Tel Aviv Museum of Art Music Festival. She is also a regular singer at Kabbalat Shabbat services and performed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on the first Friday after October 7, when the square became a central gathering place for prayer, solidarity, and hope.

With her close-cropped white-blonde hair, jeans and boots Bat Ella is very much a secular Jew. “There is more than one way to be a Jew,” she says. “I am a secular person and when I sing songs from Jewish sources, it’s not because I feel commanded to do so, it’s because they are a source of treasure that give me inspiration and wisdom.”

Bat Ella credits her late friend, the American singer Debbie Friedman, with enabling her to come to terms with her Jewish and Israeli identity and two years ago performed at Finchley Reform Synagogue on her way to Limmud, just as Debbie had done in 2010, the year she died. “Debbie made me feel at home with my Judaism; to feel comfortable, proud and even to fall in love with my Judaism.”

She embraces ‘Jewish peoplehood’ – the notion that “you should put aside all your political and religious views and opinions and then ask yourself what are the things that make us one people? When I perform around the world for Jewish communities the idea is to celebrate what we have in common and to celebrate what makes us really strong together.”

She says her audience is not passive – they sing and dance. “This is a crucial part of my concert – to celebrate our Judaism, to celebrate the things that bring us together, that we are one people.”

Bat Ella recognises that the Jewish disapora has been suffering since October 7 and that “Israel is not the only story – for our brothers and sisters overseas the challenges are different. So for me to come and to perform abroad is to bring the Israeli spirit, a hug of solidarity and to say thank you.” She will perform at events organised by The Israeli Philharmonic Foundation UK, as well as at the Manchester Jewish Museum in a Chanukah-inspired concert celebrating light and renewal on December 7. Earlier this year she sang at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York and Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, where she was invited as a guest singer for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

Since October 7 Bat Ella has been performing across Israel for hostage families, soldiers, the wounded, evacuees and families that lost their loved ones. “Every song that I sing, if it’s an old one or a new one, gets a new interpretation – I sing it from a different place in my heart.”

“Right now, it’s a time of hope and optimism and we have to hold on really, really tight. I believe that the good will come. At the end of my concerts I ask the audience to stand up, to hug and to sing so that they leave with an uplifted spirit and the same belief. We are people who believe in life – we choose life. I also choose happiness. October 7 made me realise happiness is not a destination. It’s a way of life to respect and to appreciate the little things that we take for granted. The war made us understand that to wake up in the morning to see your family, to see that everybody is healthy and alive, is happiness”.

Bat Ella is performing at the Manchester Jewish Museum on 7 December. manchesterjewishmuseum.com