Izik Lachmani leads two lives. By day, he works in construction. But come nightfall, you can often find the Tel Aviv native under pulsing lights in front of a San Francisco crowd as he pursues his passion as a house music DJ.
“I like to bring people together, good vibe, a good energy,” he told J.
Lachmani, 35, is part of the Bay Area’s Israeli expat community. Three years ago, he started a company called Cloud9 to throw parties and events, including an annual Purim rave. Last year, party-goers dressed up as everything from sparkly fairies to cuddly pandas and crowded in body to body, jumping and dancing to heavy house beats.
This year, the costume and dance party is set to begin at 9 p.m. Saturday and keep going until at least 4 a.m. Sunday at the Great Northern, 119 Utah St., San Francisco. Cloud9 and Safra are presenting the event, in partnership with Malka Productions.
The Purim rave is part of how Lachmani and other young adults combine their identities as proud Israeli and American Jews who happen to love to party. It’s also a way for them to attract and connect with others who just want to have a good time.
Lachmani spoke recently with J. culture editor Maya Mirsky. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
J.: How long have you been in the Bay Area and how long have you been involved in the house scene?
Izik Lachmani: I grew up in Tel Aviv. I moved here to the States almost 10 years ago. I was living five years in New York, and then I moved to the Bay Area. I started DJing, actually, back in Israel over 10 years ago.
For me, music — it’s my drug. I don’t need to get drunk or to get high to have fun when I go out. And when I DJ, I get some kind of natural high. I do events just for my passion for music, not necessarily for any profit.
What are Cloud9 events like?
I feel like my productions are more like a community versus people just going to hear DJs. They are coming to meet people … and, obviously, for good music too.
What I like in my events is a big diversity of people — Persian, Middle Eastern, people from all over. I love to see how they all get connected with each other. I saw people that started thinking differently about Israel, about us as a country. When they start to come to our events, they start to get closer to us.
I think, especially after the last year and a half that we went through, I feel like it’s a good way for us to bring people closer to us and show them that the things that they see in the media [about Israelis] are totally different than who we are.
What’s your take on life in the Bay Area as an Israeli?
I feel like it’s very divided between Israelis and Jewish Americans, versus in New York. I used to live there, and I used to have Jewish American friends. I feel like, over here, the communities are kind of different, maybe because there’s not a lot of Israeli restaurants over here and things that connect us on the day-to-day level.
But I think it’s getting better. I remember on Oct. 8, I opened a WhatsApp group and I just started to invite people to go to the counterprotest. [On Oct. 9, Palestinian supporters protested in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco. Israel advocates counterprotested. Both sides were incensed and loud.]
I had maybe 70, 80 people [in the WhatsApp group]. And in three or four hours, it was like, 800 people, 900 people, and all of them in the Bay. And I was like, wow, there’s like, so many people here. More than I thought, even.
Tell me about your Purim plans.
One of my traditions that I do every year is a Purim party. It doesn’t mean that this party is just for Jews or Israelis — of course, there are a lot of Israelis and Jewish people there.
Purim is the best time to celebrate and have fun. It’s going to be really similar to [Purim in] Israel and Tel Aviv, but with a lot of people from all over.
It’s funny because people ask me sometimes like, “Oh, do you guys have parties in Israel?”
Obviously, our nightlife in Israel is much better than San Francisco! But in their head, you know, when they think about Israel, they think: so many religious people, terror attacks…. They don’t really know that it’s probably more fun than here.