The countdown clock is running. There are a mere 7 days left to one of the most popular festivals of the year: Coachella! Can you help a lone soldier make his dream come true?
Kevin grew up in California, enjoying good weather, late night Tacobell runs, and his grandma’s Shabbos chicken. When he celebrated his 21st birthday at a restaurant with his family, everyone gave him Mazal Tovs, bought him a beer and said “speech, speech!” Kevin isn’t so into speeches, but he stood up, and announced:
Kevin at his IDF induction ceremony at the kotel
His mother still hasn’t recovered from the shock.
For the last two years, Kevin has been dedicating his life to defending the state of Israel. He traded his expansive Jew fro for a buzz cut and began picking up Hebrew from officers who yell orders at him (you learn pretty fast this way). He wakes up at 4 am (on the chill days) to go on drill runs and and has guard duty for 8 hours at a time with no cell phones, books, iPods, etc. because he has to stay alert – this job is for real.
He has been saving up his off days for two years, planning to use them for a full month’s trip back to California, to visit his family, and also to attend his favorite music Festival: Coachella! He’s been a number of times already but he had to miss the last two years because he was busy, you know, becoming a Sergeant and protecting Israel so that you can come visit on Birthright Israel or sip a latté on Shenkin street and discuss Spinoza and post-existentialism.
On the last Shabbat prior to his departure, he told us about all the fun he was going to have at Coachella and all the great acts he was totally amped to see. He had just received his dates and was so happy that, after much finagling and calling in of favors, he was able to convince the IDF bureaucracy to make them correspond with the Festival. That’s when our very own ck broke his heart and said “Uh, dude? Those tickets totally sold out in less than three days.” To have seen Kevin’s face at that moment would have been to know the true meaning of heartbreak.
So the question now is, does anyone have an extra ticket to Coachella that they need to get rid of at a non-extortionate rate? I’m pretty sure that bringing a little joy to Kevin qualifies as a very big mitzva. Huge! Jewlicious applies to run a Shabbat Tent at Coachella but the powers that be rejected the application – otherwise Kevin would have been able to attend as staff. Now his only option is to pay scalper prices – remember he gets paid peanuts in the IDF – or, gasp, not go. Kevin can pay, help him find a ticket!
If you can help, or know anyone that can help, please contact Jewlicious using the Contact page, or leave a comment or send us an email at jewlicious at gmail dot com. We’ll hook you up.
Big Mitzvah. Huge!
- Will Lone IDF Soldier Kevin make it to Coachella? - 4/8/2011
- Yeah. My Hebrew Sucks. - 1/31/2011
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Great article. At the university we tend to forget that the only reason we are able to sit around talking endlessly about Spinoza is because people like Kevin are protecting our borders. Thanks Jewlicious for supporting these courageous young people who make living here possible.
for realz CK. And for some people, music festivals like Coachella are where some people get in touch with Something beyond themselves that is Awe-some… a “religious experience” if you will. – We gotta respect even the slightess opportunity for this and dan l’kaf zechut babby!
Aviva: It is possible to attend Coachella and not break the sabbath.
it’s not a mitzva to help a Jew break shabbos to go to a concert.