![24 октября 2007.]( "24 октября 2007.")
24 октября 2007.
Former John Lennon Bodyguard Sings For Israel
Some of Israel’s friends support the country for geostrategic purposes, others for cultural reasons. And then there are people like James McClain, a 67-year-old African American living in the Bronx who simply loves the Jewish people.
McClain, a former bodyguard of John Lennon and a minister without a church, has written two songs about Israel. He told The Jewish Press he wants “to work for the betterment of Israel for the rest of my life.”
McClain sang his “Children of Israel, God is On Your Side” during an Americans For a Safe Israel rally at the United Nations, and Arutz Sheva aired the song on its station.
“He’s an amazing man,” said Helen Freedman, former executive director of AFSI. Freedman has helped McClain publicize his work.
McClain composed his “Children of Israel” in March 2002 after reading the Daily News in a subway station. The front-page story reported that an Arab suicide bomber had killed 28 people, including an entire family – Shlomo and Gafnit Nehmad and their daughters Shiraz and Liran.
“Tears were coming to my eyes,” McClain recalls. “I felt lifted up in a spiritual realm and I saw the little girl [Shiraz, age seven] come to my mind in a vision. And then I heard the song being sung – she was teaching me the song. I started writing the song. I don’t even remember getting on the train.”
Next thing he knew, McClain arrived at his stop in the Bronx, the entire song complete.
Last month he released another Israel-related song, “Israel, God Will Wipe Away Your Tears” under more mundane conditions. Four more songs are on the way.
“It’s like God turned my whole life around,” McClain said. “When I’m around the children of Israel I feel a closer presence to God.”
Said AFSI’s Freedman: “Here is a Christian black man so dedicated to and so imbued with love for the Jewish people and Israel.”
Freedman related that when she goes to Israel, McClain sends along a donation for the extended Nehmad family. He also often calls her, encouraging her “to keep the faith.”
McClain said he speaks to the Nehmad family once a month and that his goal is to set up a Shiraz Nehmad and Family Foundation.
Freedman enjoys McClain’s “rich, soulful voice.” (John Lennon also admired it, McClain said.) But what really impresses her is McClain’s genuineness: “He means it from the bottom of his heart.”
на фото: John Lennon and James McClain
