To him, it’s clear that both camp and great music help elevate young lives

He’s a popular Monsey-based singer and badchan all year round, but come summer, YAAKOV SHLOMO GROSS invests his creativity and energies into creating incredible camp experiences. He served as a counselor at Krasna summer camp in Monticello for three years, then as head counselor at Sanz camp, and now leads the Krula chassidish boys’ camp in Fallsburg. To him, it’s clear that both camp and great music help elevate young lives

A SONG THAT ALWAYS REMINDS ME OF CAMP

The Shabbosdig songs bring me back to camp summers, because creating a special Shabbos atmosphere is a real emphasis in our camp. When we walk into the dining room, we sing the “Gut Shabbos, Gut Shabbos, Gut Shabbos…” Then each bunk sings this “Gut Shabbos” greeting inserting the name of their madrich. That’s how we start, and we continue to sing many beautiful niggunim. Not every child comes from a home where they sit together and sing and farbreng on Shabbos, and experiencing it in camp is special. For this alone, for the Shabbos zemiros with hundreds of people together, it’s worth a boy coming to camp.

TO CALM DOWN EXCITED CAMPERS, WE SING

Our camp song. This year, we’re using the tune of “Far di velt, far di gantze velt,” with the Yiddish lyrics, “Bist mein velt… Ich nem dir mit, mein shtetl Krula.”

WHAT CAMP DOES TO A BOY

I grew up in Eretz Yisrael, which was wonderful, but there was no camp. Every summer, we’d spend a special Shabbos in Meron or Tzfas, but to be honest, I wish we’d had camp. Over my years of camp leadership in the States, I’ve seen boys go home so different at the end of the summer. I’ve seen boys arrive friendless, and in camp they open up, make friends, gain confidence, and develop themselves.

THE CAMP’S FAVORITE SHABBOS ZEMIROS

There is an old "Dror Yikra" that we sing on Shabbos morning which the boys love (Dror yikra levein im bas — bas, bas bas…) Each stanza has that repeated syllable, so it keeps everyone wide awake and joining in. We also get very involved in "Kah Echsof," "Kah Ribbon," and "Kol Mekadesh." And the song, "Yesh Borei Oilam," where "yesh" is answered by everyone together.

A SONG THAT TAKES OUR THOUGHTS TO YERUSHALAYIM AND MASHIACH

“Lemikdasheich lemikdasheich tuv, ulekodesh kudshin, asar di bei yechdun ruchin venafshin…” from the Pittsburger Rebbe’s tune for "Elokah Di’Lei" ("Kah Ribbon") is pretty popular around here. The chassidish tunes for "Racheim Bechasdecha," the Yiddish song, "Vus Vet Zayn Ven Moshiach Vet Kummen," Moshe Goldman's "Higaleh Nah." And if we’re ruminating about the length of the galus, we tend to sing Dovi Meisel’s poignant song, “Kretchma.”

SOME OF THE SPECIAL GUESTS WE’VE HAD AT KRULA

Badchan Yoeli Braun and Chaim Itzkowitz both come here, but in general, we have a very talented set of madrichim, singers, as well as musicians, and lighting guys. When we want music in camp, we put together beautiful music. We like to bring out our campers’ talents, so we encourage them to come forward, for example, when we do a mock wedding, the boys arrange choirs, and when we choose a theme, the boys act it out. We keep them in charge.

OUR BEST COLOR WAR BREAKOUTS

We had a fake bar mitzvah, which was pretty good, and then there was the year I pretended I had to leave camp for a few days to go sing at a dinner in London. The boys went to be mechazek older Yidden in a nursing home, and were then called to do a mitzvah and form a respectable crowd at the levayah of a meis mitzvah — and there I was.

A SONG THAT NEVER FAILS TO WARM UP A CROWD FOR A GREAT KUMZITZ

Kumzitzes are really my thing — I do more of them than mitzvah tantzes or anything else, and I always begin with the heilige Ribnitzer’s niggun — that’s the one MBD released as “The Rebbe’s Niggun.”

A SONG I NEVER WANT TO HEAR SUNG IN CAMP 

We don’t allow singing in Ivrit. It’s either Lashon Kodesh or Yiddish, and all our campers know that.

A JEWISH MUSIC ARTIST I ESPECIALLY CONNECT TO

Ahrele Samet. His singing is leibedig through and through, and I love it.

FIRST NIGGUN SUNG AT THE SHABBOS SEUDAH IN CAMP

On both Friday night and Shabbos morning, right after the fish, when we’re all seated and ready for zemiros, we start singing the slow Vizhnitz, “Shabbos Kodesh Heilige Shabbos.” That’s actually the same exact niggun which is sung in Satmar for “Lekoved Hatana Ha’Eloka…” at the Lag B’omer fires.

A SONG THAT NEVER FAILS TO WARM UP A CROWD FOR A GREAT KUMZITZ

Kumzitzes are really my thing — I do more of them than mitzvah tantzes or anything else, and I always begin with the heilige Ribnitzer’s niggun — that’s the one MBD released as “The Rebbe’s Niggun.”

A COMPOSER WHOSE MUSIC I STILL ENJOY

Moshe Goldman. His songs get the message over and hit the spot musically, too. But I’m attached to a lot of the older chassidish composers — the songs of Skulen and Vizhnitz are my usual soundtrack.

A SONG THAT REMINDS ME OF MY GRANDPARENTS

There’s a niggun called the “Viznitzer Chamoil,” which continues into, “Od yizkor lanu ahavas eisan Adoneinu… [He will remember for us the love of the mighty One].” That’s who our Zeide was, Avraham Avinu, and when I sing that I feel the connection.

AN INSTRUMENT I WISH I PLAYED

Keyboard, to accompany myself when I’m singing. It’s never too late, though. Maybe one day I’ll learn.

MY FAVORITE YIDDISH SONG

“A Yiddele,” by Isaac Honig.

MUSIC THAT HELPS ME UNWIND

Anything by Carlebach gives me a relaxing breather.

AS A BADCHAN, HOW I CHOOSE MY TUNES 

I always try to sing what the mechutanim like. If he’s a Gerrer chassid, he wants to hear Gerrer songs, not Vizhnitz or Belz. Part of my job is to chap what works well for different crowds.

MY MOST MEMORABLE WEDDING

It was 11 p.m. and I was in the middle of a kumzitz in Kiryas Joel, when I got a call from a wedding hall manager in Boro Park. “Where are you?”

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I’ll be there.”

The mitzvah tantz is held at the end of the wedding, and it usually starts after 12:30. I thought I had plenty time to drive to Boro Park, but the manager was frantic. “Forget it,” he told me. “Stay put. You missed it — we’re on to the mitzvah tantz already now.”

I called the singer, Yidi Bialostozky, and asked him a special favor — to sing on and extend the chasunah enough so I could make it on time. “I would do it, but there are not even five people here to dance,” he told me.

I tried the musician and got the same answer. It seemed that since the chassan was from overseas, there really were not enough people at the wedding to keep the dancing going.

The anxious mechutan phoned me, and I had to calm him down, and explain that I was on my way. I made it to Boro Park in record time (the ticket came in the mail the following week), calmed down the chassan and kallah and the hall manager, and in the end, I put so much into that mitzvah tantz despite the stressful start, the mechutanim told me it was worth waiting for.

OTHER BADCHANIM I ENJOY LISTENING TO

Pinky Weber and Motty Ilowitz, Avraham Mordche Schwartz, and Yoeli Braun. All of them are great.

MY ADVICE TO A NEW BADCHAN

Better to give more compliments and attention than less to family members you’re talking about. Unless someone says to me very specifically that he doesn’t want to be praised in public, I’d rather err on the side of too much than skimp.

AN ALBUM I’D TAKE ON A LONG ROAD TRIP

Well, that would depend on my mood at that moment, but it would probably be an album by Michoel Schnitzler or MBD.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1025)