The Moshav Band

Raised in Israel on Moshav Meor Modi’im, a musical village in the hills between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Yehuda Solomon (vocals, percussion) and Duvid Swirsky (vocals, guitar),have learned and played music since childhood. Their American parents had come to Israel in 1972 – just in time for the Yom Kippur war. They settled on a Moshav – a similar lifestyle to a kibbutz but with more autonomy and independence for the family – where their children were born and raised.

“When we were growing up,” explains Duvid, “the only electrical appliance in the house was a record player. So, while American kids might be growing up watching television and playing video games, we were growing up listening to music.” The music they listened to were the records their parents had brought with them – Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young – and that music, combined with the beat poets they read and embraced continues to influence their songwriting. The particular Moshav that was home to the members of the band had been founded by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, himself a musician, and the young men performed with Rabbi Carlebach as well as on their own.

Eventually, American students traveling in Israel heard them play and befriended the members of the band. Taken not only with the beauty of their music, but the band members’ charismatic stage presence, these young kids from the U.S. went back to the States and raised the money to bring Moshav to America. Based in Los Angeles since 2000, the band continues to perform throughout the US and the world.