Today, Thursday, Israeli celebrity songwriter and singer Ishay Ribo released a new video clip featuring a special performance of his hit song, Lashuv HaBayta, (Coming Home) from his third album, produced several months ago. In this inspiring musical presentation, Ribo is seen singing his song together with dozens of immigrants from countries around the world. The clip is a joint initiative of Ribo and the international youth group association, World Bnei Akiva, (WBA) which has been active for close to 70 years in encouraging Aliyah to Israel.

The song was chosen for the special clip in honor of Yom Ha’Atzmaut due to its heartwarming references to “coming home.” Ribo sings, “It’s time to wake up; to leave it all behind and prevail; to return home, not to search for someplace else.”

To date, Ribo’s original song Lashuv HaBayta has 6.5 million views on YouTube. It was popularly aired on all radio channels and was later included in Ribo’s third album, Shetach Afor (Gray Area). The Yom Ha’Atzmaut video clip was appropriately filmed in Independence Park in Jerusalem. On the day of recording, 70 olim from 70 WBA branches spanning 30 countries including Argentina, Mexico, United States, Canada, Brazil, England, France, Denmark, Belgium, and Australia assembled in the park to sing about coming home along with Ribo.

Ribo himself immigrated to Israel at the age of 8 from France. “The excited feedback and participation of World Bnei Akiva is both exciting and empowering,” Ribo says about the joint project. “It’s not every day that I have an opportunity to meet people from so many countries who—individually and collectively—choose to proudly realize the Zionist dream and come home. To me, the spark in their eyes tells the story of an inner fire burning with love of the Jewish land and the Jewish people, a fire that can’t be extinguished, even after 2000 years.”

“The inspiration of this song, sung by our alumni living in Israel, perfectly encapsulates the vision of World Bnei Akiva,” expresses Secretary General of WBA Roi Abicassis. “We at WBA are thrilled with each and every immigrant who chooses to fulfill the Zionist dream and join his and her family in Israel. We sought to unite these amazing immigrants, alumni of WBA, who represent the multifaceted spectrum of Aliyah promoted by our organization, to mark this year’s special occasion of Israel’s 70th anniversary. Ishay Ribo gladly agreed to this joint activity, and, together, we produced this incredible, inspiring clip. This clip precisely expresses the essence of World Bnei Akiva and our goal of accompanying our Jewish brothers and sisters as they return home, from all corners of the world, in song and joy.”

World Bnei Akiva is the largest Zionist youth group in the world. It was founded in 1954, and presently encompasses some 110 branches across 26 countries. The movement waves the banner of Torah v’Avodah, Zionism and Aliyah, and calls upon its alumni to realize the Zionist dream of immigrating to Israel. Many of the Movement’s branches are operated by Israeli delegates who move to cities and countries in the Diaspora for a period of up to 4 years and perform outreach with Jewish youth. At present, World Bnei Akiva has 130 delegates stationed around the world.