38 | AUGUST 8 • 2024 
J
N

YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT

I

t was not the kind of 
announcement John 
Ondrasik usually hears at 
his concerts.
The Grammy Award-
nominated singer-songwriter, 
who, since the mid-1990s, has 
performed under the mon-
iker Five for Fighting, was 
in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square 
on April 13 to perform his 
song “OK” — inspired by the 
aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack 
on Israel — and his hits such 
as “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” 
and “100 years.” 
“Before I walked out and 
played, someone came on and 
said, ‘In the event of a missle 
attack, everybody please take 
shelter, put your hands on 
your head ...’” Ondrasik, 59, 
recalls.

“I’ve never had an 
announcement like that 
before, ever. I wanted to run 
to my hotel and hide, but 
nobody left, not one person.” 
That was, of course, the 
night of the Iranian missile 
attack on Israel, which was 
thwarted by the country’s Iron 
Dome as well as assistance 
from U.S., British, French and 
Jordanian air forces. It was 
still scary, Ondrasik acknowl-
edges, but he also “learned 
a lot about Israelis and the 
Jewish people” through the 
experience as well as during 
the rest of his visit. 
“After I was finished [per-
forming], the leader of the 
hostage forum came up to me 
and said, ‘OK, they’re closing 
the airspace. You have to be 

in your hotel at 11 o’clock,’” 
Ondrasik recalls. “I had my 
son with me and said, ‘All 
right, we have to go to the 
hotel. Let’s go. Get a car.’ Then 
the main guy said, ‘But we 
have dinner reservations.’ I 
said, ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ but he said, 
‘No, John, it took us two 
weeks to get this dinner reser-
vation!’
“That’s who the Israelis are. 
They’re just used to this. You 
see the capacity for joy in 
these dark times. That’s a life 
lesson for all of us.”
Ondrasik, meanwhile, is 
trying to teach the world, and 
especially his musical peers, 
a lesson in caring — about a 
great many things, but right 
now especially about Israel 
and antisemitism. 

SINGING FOR ISRAEL
“A Lone Voice Sings For 
Israel” was the headline of an 
April feature on him in the 
Wall Street Journal, for which 
Ondrasik also wrote an op-ed 
piece calling for the release or 
rescue of the Oct. 7 hostages 
and contrasting the situation 
with the Iranian embassy 
captives 45 years ago. 
 He spoke at UCLA — 
where he graduated with 
degree in applied science and 
mathematics — in opposi-
tion to the protests that were 
disrupting the campus. He 
met with Natan Sharansky 
in April, and performed 
with Matisyahu and Idan 
Raichel on May 16 at the 
Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. He’s also been 

Five for Fighting’s John 

Ondrasik is advocating for Israel.

 Still 

 Fighting
 for
What’s Right

GARY GRAFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

Ondrasik singing in 
April at the Bring 
Them Home Now 
concert in Hostage 
Square in Tel Aviv.

