The organization, founded by EA music executivein 2012, works to promote music and the arts as a means to peace, to support artists and to counter the BDS boycott of Israel.
. Carter recalled his first visit to Israel when former client Lady Gaga played Tel Aviv and the misperceptions he brought with him. “I had a bias. You see on the news, you think it’s going to be war torn, dangerous. We took the Navy Seals with us, we went over with all this security, and when we landed it was better then Miami Beach,” he said with a laugh. “We were swimming in the Mediterranean, floating in the Dead Sea, I [bought] fake Gucci on the street where Jesus walked.
Saturn, the first female honored by the organization, noted she has visited Israel annually for the past 17 years and has found “there’s no better place to witness unity than Jerusalem,” she said. “Artists should always have the opportunity to connect with their [audiences] anywhere in the world…music has the ability to pierce through cultural barriers.”
Bay-Schuck, who brought his mother with him to the event, humorously detailed his first visit to Israel when he was 12, which wasn’t an undiluted success. “My palette was limited. If it wasn’t pizza or a cheeseburger, I wasn’t eating it,” he said. “My family picked Passover to go. Imagine my surprise when I’m told there was no break for 1000 miles.