Song and dance in the bread aisle

NCSY Auction video a hit on YouTube

By Michael Orbach

Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770

For five minutes last Monday, the bread aisle at Gourmet Glatt became an avant-garde musical theatre.

Customers were surprised, to say the least, when Eli Levin of Far Rockaway, and six other Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv students broke into a song and dance routine to the tune of “Be Our Guest,” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. They did it to help drum up online publicity for NCSY’s 18th annual auction. The six dancers are all NCSY alumni.

They seem to have met their goal: the recording was the most-viewed video last week in YouTube’s non-profit category, according to NCSY’s marketing and PR director, Duvi Stahler, who came up with the idea. As of press time Tuesday evening it had been viewed over 9,000 times.

Stahler hit upon the idea of a musical interlude from this year’s top prize: a year’s worth of free groceries from Kosher.com, the online supermarket that operates out of Gourmet Glatt’s Cedarhurst facility.

“The idea was to do something as a grand prize that [people] need, not luxuries, something people have to spend money on,” he explained.

While the number was heavily rehearsed, the recording bears a touch of improv nevertheless. The video shows an elderly woman who insisted on disrupting the performance, pushing through the dancers to get a loaf of bread.

The Auction drawings will occur on the evening of December 5th at the Kingsway Jewish Center on Kings Highway and Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

Not content to rest after a successful performance, NCSY will host a number of viewing nights, with entertainment, for this year’s prizes, which include a free trip to Israel and a six-day stay at the Plaza. This Saturday night, NCSY will host a singles night at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. The following Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, there will be a wine tasting at 293 Roselle Avenue in Cedarhurst, the home of Cirri and Ushi Shafran.

For more about the auction visit www.ncsyauction.com and the video is available here.