Israel in song...

Israeli music reflects the history of the State, the history of the Jewish people from antiquity to modern times; almost every chapter of history is set to music, phrases of the Tanach and other Jewish Sources are intertwined in song, given new meanings, adapted into modern life.
Maybe the best known Israeli song of all times is ‘Jerusalem of Gold’, written and composed by Naomi Shemer. This song has an interesting story behind it; it is just one of the many Shemer’s songs that became Israeli hits, and have remained so until this day.


“Jerusalem of Gold”, in our Sources is the name of a jewel that Rabbi Akiva wanted as a present for his wife Rajel; The phrase “For all your songs I am a violin”(Lejol shiraij ani kinor) belongs to a poem by Yehuda Halevi. These images are part of the inspiration behind the most popular song of Naomi Shemer, the one that brought her to stardom. It was 1967, a tense period in Israel prior to the Sixth day war and the Song Festival was being held at Jerusalem’s Binyamei Hauma; for the first time the festival was to stage songs written by composers and poets to entertain the audience while the votes for the top singer were being cast. Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek suggested the songs be written about Jerusalem. At the time there were no songs about yearning for Jerusalem, it was a subject that apparently did not interest the public. Naomi wrote her song bringing familiar elements from the city, the stones, the violin, psalms. When she showed the song to her friend Rivka Michaeli, who lived in Jerusalem, she proposed Naomi to write about longings for the Old City. Following this advice Shemer added another verse: “And the wells are dry/the city square is empty/ and there are no visitors at the Temple Mount in the Old City” and “there is no going down to the Dead Sea by the road of Jericho”. This verse became the center of a controversy in which Shemer was accused of ignoring reality, because there were in fact people living in the Old City: “Arabs of course, but no Jews” was Naomi’s response; for her as long as there were no Jews living in the city it felt as if it was empty; by this event Naomi was associated with the Israeli right; it was a kind of “accusation” regarding her opinions towards the Land. To this she answered: “This criticism angers me very much. It’s as if a man misses his loved one, and goes to a psychiatrist, Amos Oz (a famous writer associated with the Israeli left), and he tells him “Don’t worry she’s not alone in bed”… A world that is empty of Jews is for me a dead planet, and an Eretz Israel who is empty of Jews is for me empty and deserted”.
Naomi Shemer chose Shuli Natan, an unknown 18 year old singer/soldier to perform her song. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority was skeptic about this choice; they argued that no one knew this singer and the public might no respond well, but Shemer stick to her choice. She heard Natan`s voice for the first time while listening to the radio with her daughter Lali. She heard a beautiful female voice and asked her daughter to write down the name of the singer. When she finished writing Yerushalaim shel Zahav, she asked Kol Israel(radio broadcast) to find this singer for her, she knew Natan was the right singer (a soprano) for her song.
The song was played at the festival by Natan accompanied only by her guitar; it had to be played again by the end (by public petition) of the festival and the audience immediately joined in singing the chorus. The war broke shortly after and the song was perceived as a kind of prophesy; Shemer, a prophetess.
It was this song that was in the lips of every soldier when they captured the Old City and raised the Israeli flag.
Natan Sharansky, former Soviet political prisoner and former Minister for Diaspora affairs, recalls how this song raised the spirit and hope of Soviet Jewry and inspired them in their fight. The song was the closest thing they had to Israel and through which they could express their Zionist feelings.
After the war, Shemer added another verse to the song in where she described the return to the Old City: “We returned to the water wells/ to the market and the city square/ and the sound of the Shofar can be heard at the Temple Mount in the Old City”; in another verse she said “and know we are able to go down to the Dead Sea by the way of Jericho”. She performed this new version before the fighters and they immediately began to applaud to which she responded: “it is me who has to applaud you, because it is a lot easier to change a song than to change a city.”
From that moment on the song became a symbol and a kind of prayer and Naomi Shemer was catapulted as the “Israeli Nationalist songwriter.”
In 1968 then member Knesset Uri Avnery presented a bill to the Knesset Speaker, proposing that Yerushalaim Shel Zahav be anointed the country’s anthem. Shemer did not reject this proposition; she said it was actually an honor for her. Avnery felt Hatikva was not the appropriate anthem neither for the Jewish nor the Arab population of the State. He proposed a few changes for the lyrics to make it more suitable for the two people (Israeli and Arab) for whom the city is holy. Avnery proposed the slogan “United Jerusalem, capital of two peoples”, an opinion he maintained when interviewed after Naomi’s` death in 2004, when he confessed that his idea was changing part of the lyrics to make them suitable for the Palestinians, a proposition I believe, Naomi would have never accepted.
Towards the end of her life Naomi “confessed” to a reporter from Haaretz newspaper, that the melody of the song might be the same as a Basque lullaby she once heard. She felt she plagiarized the song and that pained her deeply. She didn’t have the chance, before passing away, of listening to the author of this lullaby speak on her behalf and deny these allegations.
Jerusalem of Gold was chosen the song of the Jubilee at Israel’s 50th anniversary, the most beloved song of all times.

Link to the song as performed by Shuli Natan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnenEKv6sGI&feature=related

Link to the song as performed by Ofra Haza at the main event for Israel's Jubilee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlIJOAZ1pak&feature=related