The Bible is a recurring theme in Israeli song, numerous composers, ancient and modern, find in the Bible inspiration for their songs, either retelling well known stories or giving them a meaning of their own.
The story of Jacob in the Bible is well known; he fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for her father Laban in order to marry her. Jaacob was misled by Laban who gave him his eldest daughter Leah instead of his beloved Rachel. In scripture is not common to speak about love; yet Jaacob and Rachel’s relationship is described in such a way. On the other hand, Leah is not a pretty woman, she had “weak eyes”, and was always, the “unloved” wife(Gen. 29).
Ehud Manor, one of the greatest Israeli songwriters felt the treatment given to Leah was unfair and wrote a song in which Leah is “vindicated”: She is loved by Jaacob, who wants her to be proud, not sad and bitter about her sister; she bore 10 sons he remind her, who stand by her side; the seven years had already passed and he is just hoping to fulfill her wishes. If I forget you, he says, then ,my name is not Israel…
Tziva Pick, a famous Israeli singer and composer, and nowadays, judge of the Israeli version of American Idol (Cojav Nolad), set the song to music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2s0W13jiaE&feature=related
lunes, 6 de julio de 2009
Israel in song...
The Six Day War in 1967 brought about deep changes in Israel; from a territorial point of view, Israel became a much bigger country, yet 1.500.00 Arabs were now under Israeli control.
A great sense of pride because of the great achievements of the war spread from Israel to Jews around the world and this Zionist pride lead to a wave of aliya from America, Europe and South America, especially Argentina, of people with deep Zionist ideals. Industry developed and there was a great economic growth in the country that was until that moment, experiencing a great and difficult economic recession.
Religious Zionists that belonged to the National Religious party, and Labor supporters for the Movement of Greater Israel assigned messianic terms to the victory of 67´and the conquest of the Biblical Lands of Judea and Samaria, a process that in their view would lead to the redemption of all Israel.
This group of believers later formed Gush Emunim (the Block of the Faithful) in 1974 after the Yom Kippur war. The Gush was a political movement which encouraged settlement activity in the Land promised to the Jewish people in the Bible.
Naomi Shemer wrote Al Kol Ele,in 1979. Her brother in law, which she cared much about, passed away, and the song was written to console her sister Ruthi. But the phrase “Al nataa kor natua”, “Do not uproot that which has been planted”, caught the attention of Gush Emunim who “appropriated” the song and attached to it a political meaning. The song became the hymn of the Gush, who at the time opposed disengagement from the city of Yamit,in the Sinai Peninsula (as a result of the Peace Agreement with Egypt)
FOR ALL THOSE THINGS
Naomi Shemer (free translation by Rebeca Herman)
For the honey and the sting
For the bitter and the sweet
For our little girl, guard us
my good Lord.
For the fire that burns
For the gleaming waters
For the man returning home
From a distant place
Chorus
For all those things
For all those things
Guard me, please my good Lord.
For the honey and the sting
For the bitter and the sweet
Do not uproot what has been planted
Do not forget to have hope
Let me return,
To the good Land
Rustles a tree in the wind
Far away a star is shining
The calmness of my heart at night
Is being inscribed now
Please take care of all those things
And for the love of my soul
For the silence and the cries
And for this song
In the following link the song is performed by Yossi Banai, for whom was originally written
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJQg29FLVDY&feature=related
A great sense of pride because of the great achievements of the war spread from Israel to Jews around the world and this Zionist pride lead to a wave of aliya from America, Europe and South America, especially Argentina, of people with deep Zionist ideals. Industry developed and there was a great economic growth in the country that was until that moment, experiencing a great and difficult economic recession.
Religious Zionists that belonged to the National Religious party, and Labor supporters for the Movement of Greater Israel assigned messianic terms to the victory of 67´and the conquest of the Biblical Lands of Judea and Samaria, a process that in their view would lead to the redemption of all Israel.
This group of believers later formed Gush Emunim (the Block of the Faithful) in 1974 after the Yom Kippur war. The Gush was a political movement which encouraged settlement activity in the Land promised to the Jewish people in the Bible.
Naomi Shemer wrote Al Kol Ele,in 1979. Her brother in law, which she cared much about, passed away, and the song was written to console her sister Ruthi. But the phrase “Al nataa kor natua”, “Do not uproot that which has been planted”, caught the attention of Gush Emunim who “appropriated” the song and attached to it a political meaning. The song became the hymn of the Gush, who at the time opposed disengagement from the city of Yamit,in the Sinai Peninsula (as a result of the Peace Agreement with Egypt)
FOR ALL THOSE THINGS
Naomi Shemer (free translation by Rebeca Herman)
For the honey and the sting
For the bitter and the sweet
For our little girl, guard us
my good Lord.
For the fire that burns
For the gleaming waters
For the man returning home
From a distant place
Chorus
For all those things
For all those things
Guard me, please my good Lord.
For the honey and the sting
For the bitter and the sweet
Do not uproot what has been planted
Do not forget to have hope
Let me return,
To the good Land
Rustles a tree in the wind
Far away a star is shining
The calmness of my heart at night
Is being inscribed now
Please take care of all those things
And for the love of my soul
For the silence and the cries
And for this song
In the following link the song is performed by Yossi Banai, for whom was originally written
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJQg29FLVDY&feature=related
viernes, 3 de julio de 2009
History: How distorted views become ´facts´.
Narrative Dissonance - Martin Peretz (New Republic)
More and more, history has become a competition between and among narratives, self-consciously disdainful of what we used to think of as fact. But real history is the telling and interpretation of actual happenings, and it requires what used to be called knowledge - correct facts and warranted interpretations of them. There are two basic narratives to the nearly century-old Jewish and Arabs-of-Palestine dispute. What is most brazen or, at best, bizarre in Obama's historical recitation in his Cairo speech is the stark omission of the whole Zionist enterprise. Instead, he chose to understand the Jewish presence in Palestine as a sort of restitution for the Holocaust. The result was to diminish the determination of the Jewish people through the ages, and especially since the age of nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century, to reclaim their homeland and restore its dispersed sons and daughters to Zion - not as a reparation, but as a right. By the time World War II - before the Holocaust - began, there were already more than 500,000 Jews in Palestine. Most of them had arrived as their palpable reply to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, to the approval by the League of Nations of a British mandate for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Jewish sovereignty in postwar Palestine was only one of several rearrangements contemplated for the vast territories that had been governed by the Ottoman Empire, now expired. From this land mass emerged the states of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, North Yemen, and various other adjustments of frontiers on behalf of the Wilsonian principle of the self-determination of nations. These countries, composing almost the entire Fertile Crescent, were vouchsafed to the Arabs, their first experiments at self-government in history. Tiny Palestine was intended for the Jews. They were already at work in the desert, in the swamps, in their kibbutzim, in their new cities, including Tel Aviv, in their bourgeois enterprises, in their universities and research institutions. And, moreover, they had revived their ancient language, making it a living tongue. Hitler had nothing to do with this revolution. Is all this not a revolution worthy of presidential recognition?
Read the full article
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=cd70b25d-12b5-4f6f-8fd3-4a965be569f3
More and more, history has become a competition between and among narratives, self-consciously disdainful of what we used to think of as fact. But real history is the telling and interpretation of actual happenings, and it requires what used to be called knowledge - correct facts and warranted interpretations of them. There are two basic narratives to the nearly century-old Jewish and Arabs-of-Palestine dispute. What is most brazen or, at best, bizarre in Obama's historical recitation in his Cairo speech is the stark omission of the whole Zionist enterprise. Instead, he chose to understand the Jewish presence in Palestine as a sort of restitution for the Holocaust. The result was to diminish the determination of the Jewish people through the ages, and especially since the age of nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century, to reclaim their homeland and restore its dispersed sons and daughters to Zion - not as a reparation, but as a right. By the time World War II - before the Holocaust - began, there were already more than 500,000 Jews in Palestine. Most of them had arrived as their palpable reply to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, to the approval by the League of Nations of a British mandate for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Jewish sovereignty in postwar Palestine was only one of several rearrangements contemplated for the vast territories that had been governed by the Ottoman Empire, now expired. From this land mass emerged the states of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, North Yemen, and various other adjustments of frontiers on behalf of the Wilsonian principle of the self-determination of nations. These countries, composing almost the entire Fertile Crescent, were vouchsafed to the Arabs, their first experiments at self-government in history. Tiny Palestine was intended for the Jews. They were already at work in the desert, in the swamps, in their kibbutzim, in their new cities, including Tel Aviv, in their bourgeois enterprises, in their universities and research institutions. And, moreover, they had revived their ancient language, making it a living tongue. Hitler had nothing to do with this revolution. Is all this not a revolution worthy of presidential recognition?
Read the full article
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=cd70b25d-12b5-4f6f-8fd3-4a965be569f3
jueves, 2 de julio de 2009
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
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
miércoles, 1 de julio de 2009
1st 'Museum of Jewish people' to open in Tel Aviv
New museum will be first in world to tell story of Jewish people and largest experiential museum in Israel. Estimated cost of building new institution is $25 million
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3737514,00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3737514,00.html
Israel maps
This site provides maps from ancient Israel, the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel, to Modern Israel, changing borders etc.
An interesting and informative way to follow on Israeli history and border changes through times.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/maps/Israel_Maps.htm
An interesting and informative way to follow on Israeli history and border changes through times.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/maps/Israel_Maps.htm
A Jewish Democratic State
by Gadi Taub
"The Jewish state has a Jewish character: its symbols, its holidays, and much else, are all drawn, as they are in France, from the cultural heritage of the majority. But it is precisely by separating Israeli citizenship from the national Jewish identity that the minority can preserve its own identity without infringing on its citizenship. Israel allows for a state-sponsored Arab-language school system, a state-sponsored system of Muslim courts for marriage and personal status, and Arabic is a second official language of the state. The discrimination and hardships that befall Israel’s Arab minority are not to be excused. But they do not stem from Israel’s legal structure as a Jewish state. They stem from a bleeding conflict between Israel and the rest of the Palestinian nation, much of which is still under occupation."
http://www.gaditaub.com/eblog/the-idea-of-a-jewish-democratic-state/
"The Jewish state has a Jewish character: its symbols, its holidays, and much else, are all drawn, as they are in France, from the cultural heritage of the majority. But it is precisely by separating Israeli citizenship from the national Jewish identity that the minority can preserve its own identity without infringing on its citizenship. Israel allows for a state-sponsored Arab-language school system, a state-sponsored system of Muslim courts for marriage and personal status, and Arabic is a second official language of the state. The discrimination and hardships that befall Israel’s Arab minority are not to be excused. But they do not stem from Israel’s legal structure as a Jewish state. They stem from a bleeding conflict between Israel and the rest of the Palestinian nation, much of which is still under occupation."
http://www.gaditaub.com/eblog/the-idea-of-a-jewish-democratic-state/
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