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Watch a Preview of THE COVENANT Musical/Drama

• The Covenant Story
• The Covenant Tours Israel 2004
  The Covenant in Hebrew - Tours in Israel 2005
• The European Tour of The Covenant summer 2006 - see schedule
  The Covenant in Berlin during the war of Lebanon and Israel 2006
• Report about the Covenant from the Jewish Press - Israel

Berlin, July 12. The packed tour bus pulled up outside a cathedral-like church in the city center mid way through the afternoon. Greeted by a large poster advertising that night's performance, the 31 members of The Covenant travelling cast and crew began stretching their legs.

It had been a marathon 14-hour journey from Paris overnight but the taxing sprint-finish lay ahead: lights, stage, and costumes still needed to be loaded-in and set in place before this 900-seat makeshift theatre could open its doors at 7 p.m. Yet another swift breakdown, brief night's rest, and a 4-hour morning road trip to Hannover would follow the 90-minute performance. Just two of 21 cities in this backbreaking seven-nation, six-week European tour: A tour that tonight, after multiple performances across Spain, Ireland, Britain and France was still only halfway through.

Yet, descending from the bus onto the streets of the German capital, few in this varied company of singers, dancers, technicians, and translators were fully focused on the performance at hand.

News had filtered through on the bus that earlier the same morning, Iranian-backed Hizb'Allah forces had infiltrated Israel's northern border from Lebanon, killed three soldiers and kidnapped two more before unleashing a barrage of deadly Katuysha rockets at communities in the north. In the hours that followed five more IDF troops were killed as they went in after their captured comrades. By early afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had called the morning raid "an act of war".

"My first thought was: Oh no! We're not home", recounted The Covenant's producer Chuck King - displaying the typically Israeli instinct of not wanting to abandon the country under fire.

It even crossed his mind to change his flight tickets and take his wife Louann and 11-year old daughter Jessica straight back to Israel to join the rest of their family in Jerusalem, where he has served as the ICEJ Music Director for over 10 years.

"When the conflict broke out, the fatigue and exhaustion was for me marginalised", Chuck reflected later. It was as though the outbreak of war put the whole purpose of their gruelling European mission into perspective. "We realised again why we were doing this", he confessed.

In this, he was not alone. The whole group became conscious of the heightened significance of their role as travelling ambassadors for the Jewish State, not least the four families who travelled the 13,000 kilometres by road (not to mention thousands more by boat and air) with eight children aged 6 months to 12 years.

"The anti-Semitic feeling in Europe is real and in your face", Chuck asserted. "So for us to be going around as actors and singers waving the Israeli flag is significant. Jewish people in every city heard our voices of solidarity and were surrounded in the audience by thousands of Christians, saying: 'Israel we are standing with you, you are not alone, we are praying for you!'"

For those on stage it was an unforgettable experience, as night after night hundreds went away choking back their tears, speechless and visibly shaken.

"It's very moving for us to see the [audience's] tears, the response, especially during the tough scenes", Chuck explained, referring to the musical's dramatic presentation of the persecution of the Jews throughout history, culminating in the Holocaust. "To know, in this unique way, we're bringing healing and closure to people who've been hurt by Christians, especially in Germany."