World As It Could Be Song by Henry Sidle

Henry will perform his song and be interviewed by David Gans at Gathering of the Vibes on Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 3:15 PM on the Green Vibes Stage Side Platform. Don’t miss this!

Henry Sidle is a 12-year-old student living in New England who has been inspired by The World As It Could Be.

Henry learned about the Rex Foundation because of his love of music, particularly that of the Grateful Dead. In April, having heard about the Foundation’s recent release of “The Wheel-A Musical Celebration of Jerry Garcia,” Henry checked out the Rex website and learned that Rex was started by the Grateful Dead. He then decided to approach the Rex Foundation to see if he could help raise funds and visibility for Rex as the community service component of his Bar Mitzvah project, suggesting, as one idea, doing something at Gathering of the Vibes, a favorite destination. Upon learning about The World As It Could Be Project, Henry enthusiastically decided to have the Project be his community service focus.

He wrote lyrics and produced a song to honor his inspiration. Here’s the video Henry created:

Henry wrote: “For my Bar-Mitzvah project I chose to work with the Rex Foundation. This organization has a human rights education project called The World as It Could Be. This project is about getting young people to be aware of human rights around the world through the arts and teaching them about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In my class, this year, we learned about the Holocaust and other forms of genocide. If every government truly followed the UDHR, the world would be a much more peaceful place and there would be no genocide. This video is a song I wrote that honors the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and The World as It Could Be project. I hope that one day life gets better for those who are suffering because they don’t have these basic rights. My dream for this song is to let it spread awareness of human rights issues to the world and let people know that their small peaceful actions count.

Rex Executive Director Sandy Sohcot says: Some uncanny personal connections have added to this special opportunity of working with Henry Sidle as he decided to include The World As It Could Be Project as the community service element of his Bar Mitzvah. Henry and his family live in Hamden, CT, a town close to Orange, CT, where I lived during my middle and high school years. Mishkan Israel, the synagogue Henry and his family belong to, holds special meaning to me, as well—Arthur Sohcot (deceased Sept. 1987) and I were married there, and when I was around Henry’s age, I attended gatherings there led by then Senior Rabbi Robert (Bob) Goldberg, to hear about his active work and involvement in the Civil Rights marches in the South. Hearing Rabbi Goldberg’s experiences inspired me to care more about my own community involvement and commit to helping make a positive difference.