For all the people who emailed me poems, thank you. For those who's emails bounced, I believe my email wasn't working for a couple days, so try again. And yet, I would prefer the language to be English and it has to be of Jewish and/or Israeli content of some sort. I will read the poems in a couple weeks when the Three Weeks before Tisha B'Av begin. You can email me your poetry at bbresky@israelnationalradio.com. Someone even sent me an mp3 of him reading his poetry.

So I have a loyal listener named Ed from California. Ed once sent me a CD of his favorite music. It was almost all in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. Ed's favorite Jewish musician is DJ Hillel, also known as Hillel, also known as Hillel Goldblum. He released two CDs in 2000 and 2001 and then ceased to be heard from. Of all the Jewish musicians out there in the world, I don't know why Ed would choose this guy as his favorite. I do know that Ed, like many outside of Israel, have a very limited selection of Jewish/Israeli music. That makes his choice of the obscure DJ Hillel even more interesting.

Several weeks back I did a trivia question contest. Whomever guessed the audio clip I played won a free CD. The clip was from Transformer: The Movie, originally released in 1986, and purchased by me with all Hebrew overdubs and no subtitles in 2008 at the tiny CD shop in the shuk near the felafel stand. (Note: Transformers in Hebrew is Robotrikim.) Ed guessed it correctly. So Ed told me that his request for his free CD was DJ Hillel, the first album, not the second one. I figured I could easily get a copy easy for pretty cheap at any CD shop. But no one has it anymore. I went to about six different stores including both Tower Records, the Eight Note, and several corner stores but no one had it. I'm sure Gal Paz has it. They have everything. Seriously, Gal Paz has to be the largest CD store in the country. But over by Mea Shearim and I havn't gotten the chance to get by there. So sorry Ed, you CD will have to wait.

As for music, DJ Hillel, is smooth pop dance music with Jewish themed lyrics... soft rock / light electronica / pop with a drum machine. One of my favorite song is B'Ahava, the title track off his 2000 album. It has a catchy "oh oh" chorus.

OK, stay tuned for more great shows including an Israeli klezmer group called Oy Division, Yehuda Kaplan, and more.