Mar 13, 2018 Amnon Peery Evangelic, Christian 0
“For I [know] their deeds and purposes.[The time] has come to gather all the nations and tongues; they shall come and behold My glory.” Isaiah 66:18 (The Israel Bible™)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Togo-IDF-soldier.jpg
Stephane Gagba, known by his stage name Stephane Legar, an Israeli singer, dancer and model, who is involved in Hip Hop music. He is serving in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) at the Public Diplomacy of Israel (Hasbara) department. Tel Aviv, Mar 5, 2018. (Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS)
As he walks in downtown Tel Aviv near the trendy Sarona market, Stephane Legar is stopped time after time by adoring teens asking him to pose for a selfie. A model, singer and dancer, Legar is Israel’s latest social media sensation: His first video, “The Step Fun Challenge,” released two years ago received 22 million hits and his Youtube channel has 71 thousand subscribers.
Born in Israel to Togolese parents, the 19-year-old sings with some of the Israeli pop scene’s top names like Ivri Lider, Giulietta, and Itay Levi. His calendar is fully booked for the next year, and he is highly sought after for advertising campaigns.
Currently serving in the IDF in a unit that explains the recruitment process to high schoolers, Legar is a veritable mixture of worlds: His parents arrived on a diplomatic mission in Israel 25 years ago and decided to stay because of their deep connection with Christianity. His mother tongue is French: “I dream and count in French,” he says, but he speaks perfect Hebrew and studied at an Israeli school in Rishon LeZion, a suburb of Tel Aviv. He is Christian, but secular and loves to celebrate Jewish holidays with friends, as well as Christmas.
As a child, Legar spent most of his holidays in Togo visiting relatives. “Africa is a completely different world from Israel,” he recounts. “I loved going to Togo because there was so much sand to play with, now I realize that there was so much sand because the roads are not paved. In Africa, technology is not developed as here, but people smile more. I love going around the streets of Lomé (the Togolese capital) and seeing everyone smiling, instead of looking at their smartphones like they do here.”
Although he grew up listening to international music, Stephen is enchanted by the sounds of Israeli Mediterranean music, and his purpose as an artist, he says, is to unite the two worlds
“My latest clips are collaborations with Giulietta and Itay Levi, who I think are among the best Israeli performers of oriental music. I also love very much Eden Ben Zaken,” he says.
When he posted “The Step Fun Challenge,” a short hip-hop choreography, in which he dances flanked by two girls, Legar had no idea it would be such a huge hit.
“At first I just thought I would put up a song just to see how it goes. I had no great expectations. But then people looked forward to something else, so I began to work on another song and so on,” Legar told Tazpit Press Service at an interview held a coffee shop near the IDF’s Kirya base in downtown Tel Aviv.
Legar says his success is a source of motivation for many young people, especially young persons of African origin.
“I realize that I represent a real revolution. It is not easy for a young black man to become a famous singer. I am happy to have succeeded, and I hope that my example shows that if you want to you can reach anything, ” Legar says.
He adds that he himself has been a victim of racist events in the past. “Sometimes I heard people used racist words against me,” he says. “It happened a few years ago. Now, sometimes I read racist phrases on the internet, not about me, but when it happens I react immediately. It is very important for me to use my success to educate young people”.
While he still has over a year left of his military service – he still manages to perform almost every night – Legar says his dream is to create a school of music in Togo. “I love Israel, and I would like to bring some of Israel’s music technologies and skills to my parents’ home country. I hope one day I will succeed, maybe even to open a modern music school.
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/104101/from-togo-to-tel-aviv-israels-latest-christian-pop-sensation/#s56KhC6HKYA2lR2M.99
Mar 08, 2020 0
Feb 26, 2020 0
Feb 23, 2020 0
Feb 22, 2020 0
Mar 08, 2020 0
Oct 10, 2019 0
Oct 10, 2019 0
Menachem Begin in December 1942 wearing the Polish Army uniform of Gen. Anders’ forces with his wife Aliza and David Yutan; (back row) Moshe Stein and Israel Epstein
(photo credit: JABOTINSKY ARCHIVES)
During the inauguration of a memorial to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park on January 24, 2020, before the climax of Holocaust remembrance events at which Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a central platform, we were stunned to hear a rendition of The Blue Kerchief (Siniy
Giant figures are seen during the 87th carnival parade of Aalst February 15, 2015
The annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium, is expected to take place on Sunday with even more antisemitic elements than in previous years.
Aalst’s organizers have sold hundreds of “rabbi kits” for revelers to dress as hassidic Jews in the carnival’s parade. The kit includes oversized noses, sidelocks (peyot) and black hats. The organizers plan to bring back floats similar to the one displayed in 2019 featuring oversized dolls of Jews, with rats on their shoulders, holding banknotes.
Pope Francis waves as he arrives at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in the southern Italian coastal city of Bari, Italy February 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli.
Pope Francis on Sunday warned against “inequitable solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would only be a prelude to new crises, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal.
Francis made his comments in the southern Italian port city of Bari, where he traveled to conclude a meeting of bishops from all countries in the Mediterranean basin.
Palestinians walk past a shop selling fruits in Ramallah, Feb. 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have reached an agreement to end a five-month long trade dispute, officials said on Thursday.
The dispute, which opened a new front in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began in September when the PA announced a boycott of Israel calves. The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals.
Antisemitic caricatures on display at the annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium. Photo: Raphael Ahren via Twitter.
Disturbing images emerged on Sunday of the annual carnival at Aalst, Belgium, showing an astounding number of antisemitic themes, costumes, displays and statements.
Israeli journalist Raphael Ahren documented people dressed as caricatures of Orthodox Jews, a fake “wailing wall” attacking critics of the parade, blatantly antisemitic characters and puppets wearing traditional Jewish clothes and sporting huge noses.
Feb 02, 2020 0
The remarks from the US official came in wake of the Palestinian decision to reject the administration’s peace plan. US PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to...The stench of anti-Semitism always hovers over Switzerland’s Lake Geneva when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is meeting there. The foul emanations reached a new nadir last week with UNHRC’s publication of a “database” of companies doing business in the disputed territories in Israel.
Following the publication of the list, Bruno Stagno Ugarte, deputy director for advocacy of NGO Human Rights Watch, stated, “The long-awaited release of the U.N. settlement business database should put all companies on notice: To do business with illegal settlements [sic] is to aid in the commission of war crimes.”
One of the many things that annoys me about politicians is how sure they are of themselves. Everything is black and white. Every idea is good or bad. Take globalism, for example. You either love it or hate it. It works or it doesn’t.
Another thing that annoys me is how so much of a politician’s life revolves around power: Do everything you can to get it, and everything you can to keep it.
Why am I ranting? Because, while our politicians have been consumed with power and the media with the fights over power, a threat to our nation has been virtually ignored.
Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are establishing their diplomatic credentials in the immediate run-up to Israel’s March 2 election with an insult to a U.S. administration that has arguably provided Israel with more diplomatic gains than any previous administration.
The Times of Israel reported that at a campaign stop in front of English-speaking Israelis, Gantz accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “of neglecting bipartisan ties in favor of exclusive support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” under the headline “Gantz pledges to mend ties with U.S. Democrats if elected.”
Bipartisanship was in short supply at the State of the Union address earlier this month—with one notable exception.
Nancy Pelosi had been looking dyspeptic, shuffling the papers she would later rip to shreds, when President Donald Trump reminded his audience that “the United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.”
Suddenly, the House Speaker applauded. Trump then introduced “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela: Juan Guaidó.”
The law professor Alan Dershowitz has thrown a legal hand-grenade into America’s political civil war by claiming to have evidence that former President Barack Obama “personally asked” the FBI to investigate someone “on behalf” of Obama’s “close ally,” billionaire financier George Soros.
He made his cryptic remark in an interview defending U.S. President Donald Trump against claims he interfered in the prosecution of his former adviser, Roger Stone.