There is a new documentary about the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 that is unlike any of the others — this one rocks. Literally.
“The Bridge” follows 10 Israelis affected by the attacks, and what they experienced in Los Angeles at Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. For the 10 Israeli musicians in “The Bridge,” this dream-come-true experience came only five months after the worst day of their lives.
It’s a moving journey to see music returning them to a part of to themselves which had eluded them since that day.
Rock Camp is a five-day program that places amateur musicians into temporary bands, gives them coaches from the rock world and puts them onstage with performers they idolize at the legendary venues they dreamed of playing. The camp was created by David Fishof, a former sports agent and concert producer who has spent much of his career bringing fans into the orbit of famous athletes and musicians. Fishof represented athletes before moving into concert promotion, then went on to create Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp.
At Rock Camp, an amateur musician can spend several days rehearsing with other musicians, and sharing the stage with rock performers.
Fishof’s father, a cantor, survived Auschwitz — his father even sang to the Nazis on the trains.
“I’m a Jew first, show business comes second in my life,” Fishof said. “The State of Israel is always in my heart. I’ve had homes there. I love it there. So after Oct. 7, I felt a deep need to do something. I didn’t know what, but I knew I had to act.” During Hanukkah in December 2023, Fishof went to Israel and asked his friend Sam Grundwerg, who had served as Israel’s Consul General in Los Angeles, to help arrange visits to communities attacked on Oct. 7 and the site of the Nova music festival.
That trip took Fishof to the funeral of Yotam Haim, a drummer, who was abducted on Oct. 7. Yotam’s brother, Tuval, sat behind a drum kit before thousands of mourners, including Fishof. “That was such a terrible tragedy,” Fishof said. “His brother Tuval played a drum solo in his honor. When he finished, he took the drumsticks and threw them in the grave. And that’s when it clicked. I wanted to bring that drummer and nine other survivors to Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles.”
Fishof spoke to Tuval as the delegation came together, and told him where the idea had begun. “This whole thing is inspired because of you,” Fishof said. “I was at the funeral of your brother.”
Fishof and Grundwerg set out to find 10 people affected by Oct. 7 who had a connection to music. Some had never played in bands. Some did not know much of the hard rock catalog that awaited them at the Van Halen-themed camp.
Sagi Arad, a lawyer who teaches music, helped find musicians. When he was told they still needed a bass player, Arad told his wife he would find someone. “She’s looking at me like I’m an idiot,” Sagi Arad said. “She says, ‘Just put your name, it’s okay. You can go. It’s okay.’ So I did, I put my name in and that’s how I got to this amazing delegation and met these guys.” Singer Valeria Dvorkin found out about the opportunity when a friend sent her the flyer.
On Oct. 7, guitarist Ben Rudaeff woke in Tel Aviv to alarms and called his father, Lior Rudaeff, who had gone out to help defend Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. Lior did not answer. The family knew Lior had been hurt but did not know what had happened to him. “The feeling after Oct. 7 and up until now is like we’re still in Oct. 7,” Rudaeff said. “We need to find closure. I think music really helped me cope. It pulled out a lot of feelings I was, I think, repressing at some point.”
Raz Shifer had been at the Nova festival on Oct. 7. Under rocket fire and hunted by terrorists armed with grenades and AK-47s, Shifer barely escaped. Several of her friends were murdered and abducted. “I didn’t sleep or eat for a few days afterward,” Shifer said. “I was in shock.”
Singer Valeria Dvorkin spent about 25 hours alone at her home in Nir Am as fighting took place close to the house. The night before Oct. 7, she had sung at a local pub as a friend celebrated his birthday there. That friend was killed the next day. “Something like 50 people that I know and love and knew in my life,” Dvorkin said in the documentary. “The most happy place became very sad.”
At Kibbutz Magen, Arad grabbed his gun and equipment after terrorists breached the fence. Arad said he saw 30 to 40 people outside and fought for seven hours while his wife and daughters stayed in a safe room. Arad could not play or listen to music for at least a month after Oct. 7.
Israeli guitarist Ben King spoke about how he had been coping with the trauma of the Oct. 7 attacks up until that point. “Talking about the events to some extent helps, but there’s no fix,” King said in “The Bridge.” “There’s no cure.” At his apartment, King and his wife hid in the safe room. Terrorists entered and set the apartment ablaze. King and his wife endured the smoke and heat until the IDF rescued them after more than 12 grueling, uncertain hours. The entire place burned down around them. The only thing salvageable from the rubble was a piece of King’s guitar — a volume control knob. “This is a symbol,” King said in the documentary. “Music hasn’t gone. You can still control the volume.”
In March 2024, Creative Community for Peace held an event for the Israeli musicians, “Rocking Together for Hope.” As he talked about his work, Fishof looked like a kid raving about his Christmas gifts. Camp musical director Britt Lightning — guitarist for the band Vixen and daughter of an Israeli — played “Hatikvah” on electric guitar in the style of Jimi Hendrix.
The bands picked up their instruments and got set for their first public performances. There was some hesitance in their faces but a sense of relief and accomplishment washed over them as they played classic rock hits. The final song was the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.” By the final chorus, Grundwerg was swaying and singing with then-Consul General to Los Angeles Israel Bachar, along with David Renzer, founder of CCFP.
Fishof invited The Journal to Third Encore Studios in the San Fernando Valley to see the Israelis rehearse. Some of them stood outside talking and blowing off steam. Some were in no mood to talk. Evan Stanley, son of Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley and a musician in his own right, was one of the mentors working with the Israelis. Members of A Perfect Circle were rehearsing nearby.
Prior to Rock Camp, Fishof had withheld one part of the agenda from the paying campers and the featured rock musicians: none of them had been told the Israeli delegation was joining them at camp.
“I was afraid that if I told the campers in advance about the Israelis … all I needed was to have one guy who says ‘I didn’t pay money to come to camp with a bunch of Israelis’ and opens his big mouth and makes noise,” Fishof said. “So I was prepared for that person, I would have paid for his plane tickets, would have given them a refund and sent them home.” The Israelis were fully embraced by their fellow campers. Fishof had the same concern about the featured musicians. Fishof and Grundwerg introduced the Israelis. When the introduction ended, they stood, applauded and welcomed them. That hypothetical big mouth guy? He didn’t exist. Fishof did not have to issue one refund.
“We’re standing on stage, you see all these campers applauding,” Arad said in “The Bridge” about the first day of camp. “I almost cried when that happened. This is one thing I won’t forget.” At night, they’d play acoustic jams together near at the bar at Loews Hollywood Hotel. “We didn’t get any negative experience from the other campers or the rockers,” Rudaeff said.
On Friday March 15, the Israelis played with bassist Michael Anthony of Van Halen at the camp’s North Hollywood base. Everyone in the first band looked to Anthony through the first chorus, but loosened up as they played. Fishof was the biggest cheerleader in the room.
For Rudaeff, meeting drummer Tommy Aldridge was a big moment. “My dad really loves old school rock and roll music,” Rudaeff said in “The Bridge.” “He really liked ’80s rock, like Deep Purple, Bon Jovi, Foreigner, Ozzy Osbourne. So jamming with Tommy was a dream come true.” Aldridge had played with Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake.
On the afternoon of March 17, at the Whisky a Go Go, Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach bantered with Shifer onstage, with her bandmates in position. Shifer wore a T-shirt bearing the image of her friend Romi Gonen.
“She’s kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza right now,” Shifer told Bach and the crowd. “And this is for her.” Bach looked solemn as the anthem played and belted out a duet of “18 and Life” with Shifer and her Israeli bandmates.
The final show was a few hours later at the Viper Room. The venue was packed. The Israelis played songs by Black Sabbath, Alanis Morissette, the Beatles and Israeli rock band HaYehudim’s “Od Aron Echad,” an upbeat rock anthem. “The most exciting part about performing in the Viper Room? We did a Hebrew song,” Rudaeff said in “The Bridge.”
Then Tuval spoke about his brother Yotam. He had learned from hostages who were released from Gaza that Yotam had quietly continued “drumming” and making rhythms on objects while captive in Hamas tunnels. He said that Hamas had taken Yotam’s freedom, but those terrorists could not take percussion from him.
When Tuval stopped speaking, the room was silent for a beat before a respectful applause. The band started playing Foo Fighters’ “Hero,” which opens with a dramatic drum solo. Tuval is an exceptional, confident drummer. Fellow campers and audience members shed tears as they watched his face, focused on playing but everyone knew he was thinking of his brother. Rudaeff played guitar on the song. “He played it to his brother,” Rudaeff said. “I played it to my dad.”
The post-camp return to Israel brought the musicians back to their lives. Rudaeff said the euphoria lasted a few weeks. Dvorkin said that camp “just opened me.” Fishof and Grundwerg went to Israel and visited members of the group later in 2024. Fishof wanted to get them into a room together again.
Fishof contacted Academy Award-nominated songwriter Diane Warren. She sent Fishof lyrics for a new song, “Prayers for This World,” in 20 minutes. The musicians reunited in Israel to record it. The song plays over the end credits.
Fishof showed an early cut of the documentary to his friend Kevin S. Bright, who was executive producer and director on “Friends.” “I said to [Fishof] it’s just way, way too long and it needs some things that are missing,” Bright said. “So the best thing I can give you is not advice. I’ll fix the film for you for nothing.’” Bright came aboard the project. Brad Allgood directed and edited.
“We weren’t trying to make a political statement,” Bright said. “We’re trying to tell a human story about what happens. How do you deal with trauma? How do you come back from something that’s so devastating as this?”
Fishof thinks “the biggest issue we Jews have in America is what can we do? We want to do something. We all want to do something. So for me, I was able to do something. For me, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done,” Fishof said.
On Aug. 19, “The Bridge” premiered at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Los Angeles screenings are planned for October. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee attended the Jerusalem premiere and spoke to the audience afterwards. “As long as I have lived, music has been a part of my life,” Huckabee said. “To the members of the cast who are here tonight that are going to be part of the discussion: God bless you. What an incredible gift he gave us tonight.”
