Aharit Hayamim ("End of Days") is an Israeli world beat-reggae jam band formed in 2002.[1][2][3][4]
The music of Aharit Hayamim is described as a "mix of reggae, Carlebach, rock and various ethnic musical styles."[5] Redemption and the messiah are central themes.[6][7] The band is influenced by the Hasidic rabbi Nachman of Breslov and recorded some of its demo in the Ukrainian city of Uman, where his grave is located (the grave is a pilgrimage site for Breslov Hasidim and others).[5] Most of Aharit Hayamim's members grew up in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, but they are now based in Jerusalem.[1] Aharit Hayamim also organizes a yearly festival of the same name, held near the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, which attracts a mixed religious and secular audience of more than 1000 people.[8][6][9] The band released a demo in 2004 and a (self-released) self-titled album in 2006.[3][10][5] In 2008 they collaborated with the Dar Fur Stars, a band made up of Darfuri refugees living in Israel.[11] They toured the US in 2009, spurring criticism of their politics by Daniel Sieradski and the Jewish student magazine New Voices, which the blog Jewlicious then responded to.[12][13]
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Usually other musicians join them on stage, most notably, Rabbi Shaul Judelman on saxophone and Eliahu Rosenblum on percussion.
Every summer since 2004, the band hosts the Aharit Hayamim festival in the old Masu'ot Yitzhak kibbutz near Bat Ayin in Gush Etzion. [14] Yehuda Leuchter's grandparents lived there in the 1940s. The festival began as a memorial for Leuchter's father, Emil Leuchter, a bass player who performed in the 1970s with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the Diaspora Yeshiva Band and other local groups. Since then, it has become a stop for Israeli pop stars such as Shotei HaNevuah, Y-Love, Shlomo Bar, Ehud Banai, Kobi Oz and others.