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Alex Clare: Keeping Shabbos Saved My Career

Alex Clare is an internationally renowned singer-songwriter, with millions of fans all over the globe. But two and a half years ago, he was down to his last pennies and unable to pay his rent. Because he insisted on keeping Shabbos, the record label he signed up with fired him, and his career seemed doomed.

But Alex’s rabbi told him that just like Avraham Avinu withstood the test of the Akeida, this too was a test from G-d.

Sure enough, when Alex was merely weeks away from absolute bankruptcy, he got an e-mail from Microsoft requesting to use his  song ‘too close’ for a global marketing campaign for Internet Explorer. That song went on to sell 6 million copies, and the album sold 1 million.

The video below was created to promote a campaign launched by the office of South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, titled ‘The Shabbos Project,’ which seeks to have Jews all over the country – and the world – keep one complete Shabbos in unity.

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4 Comments

  • number one alex clare fan

    Wishing you success in all your endeavours. We were at the minneapolis concert….AWESOME!!!!

  • SARAH

    Know, that in France, the same thing happened to a friend of mine . He is a singer , and was offered a hudge opportunity to be the voice leader in a musical called ” the ten commendments ” where he was supposed to play the role of Moise ( funny , no? !). When he said that they would have to find a replacement singer for the shabbats and yom tovim coming up ; they told him that nobody ever , in the music business had the chutpah to ask something like that, and they asked him to choose.He was devastated because he waited for this kind of opportunity his whole life . Nevertheless he chose to keep shabbat and they fired him. Few weeks later they called him back because they didn’t find a voice like his, in Europe, and offered him the role back accepting all his conditions . He played it on stage for a couple of years . It was a success . He won an music award for it and made a tremendous kiddush Hashem because he was known as the jewish singer that didn’t want to sing on shabbat.

  • You are so inspiring!

    And your million dollar smile and inner joy just shines through! Yishar Koach! Chazak ve-ematz and may you only have revealed good from now on!