Shalom everyone,
Another week has passed, and unfortunately, there is no new progress in ending the war or returning the hostages. The north is still ablaze (literally, not just figuratively), 100,000 people are still evacuated from their homes, and 125 hostages remain captive. Yet, the politicians in Israel seem more concerned with keeping their seats than ending this war.
I’ve written extensively about this already, and I don’t intend to discuss it further now. Instead, I want to do something different and give you a small gift that I shared with a group I guided this week.
Though it wasn’t a group of tourists, I’ve recently started a new project aimed at connecting single, the idea is to explore together with light guiding and ODT games.
This week, we had our first trip, and naturally, I started it in Jerusalem.
We began at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade and continued along the urban border that divided Jerusalem between Jordan and Israel from March 1949 until the Six-Day War in 1967. It was exciting to guide in Jerusalem again, to feel the unique embrace that this city gives you every time you visit, to talk about the history, both the recent wars and the times of David and Solomon. It was good and fulfilling, and next week we are heading to Caesarea. I feel that Herod the Great misses us 🙂
In any case, I decided to write to you and give you a gift, even though I would prefer to give it to you in person in Jerusalem.
We know many songs about Jerusalem, but one stands above them all. “Jerusalem of Gold” – some of you have walked with me and heard it, and some may already know it. But I want us to talk about how this song came to be written and what its special lyrics mean.
The younger ones among us might remember that once, before television and before our phones were glued to our faces, there was a strange device called the radio 🙂 And because it was expensive (at least in Israel), in many cases – like during the announcement of the UN partition plan – everyone would gather at the neighborhood kiosk or a neighbor’s house who had a radio and listen together.
In 1967, long before anyone thought of creating a show like “American Idol” or anything similar, a Hebrew Song Festival was held in honor of Israel’s 19th Independence Day. Back then, there was quality, and there was value in music and lyrics, unlike the nonsense we have today. Naturally, the official celebrations, including the song festival, were held in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.
As fate would have it, that year, none of the songs participating in the competition were about Jerusalem.
In the Midrash, it is said: For every city, there is a poet who sings about its beauty, charm, and honor. And Jerusalem, every poet sings about it, and whoever does not sing about Jerusalem is not crowned with the crown of poets. There is a story of one who composed 5,000 songs, and some say 10,000 songs, and was not crowned with the crown of poets until he sang a song of Jerusalem. And again, there is a story of one who composed only one song in his life, and he was called the poet, for that song was a song of Jerusalem.
But as I said, fate had it that none of the songs registered for the Hebrew Song Festival that year were about Jerusalem; it’s doubtful if the city was even mentioned in any of them…
In one way or another, a rumor reached the ears of Teddy Kollek (then the mayor of Jerusalem) that there was not a single song about Jerusalem. It is said that he almost went mad—how, on Israel’s Independence Day, celebrated in Jerusalem, the capital city, at a festival dedicated entirely to Hebrew songs, there wasn’t a single song about Jerusalem!
Without thinking twice, Teddy Kollek called the festival producer, Gil Aldema, and told him unequivocally, “There is no way there isn’t a single song about Jerusalem. Just one, I don’t need the whole festival, just one song. That’s what I demand, even if it’s not part of the competition.”
Gil realized he couldn’t refuse the mayor and promised to do everything possible to ensure there would be at least one song about Jerusalem.
Right after the call ended, Gil picked up the phone again and called the poet Naomi Shemer, asking her to help fulfill the mayor’s request and write a song about Jerusalem.
Of course, Naomi was excited, agreed without question, and asked for a few days to write the song.
A day passed, two days, three, four, and Naomi couldn’t write anything. Every time she tried, it was as if the muse had decided to wander elsewhere. After a week, she called Gil and asked to be released from the task, “I’m sorry, I can’t write on a predetermined subject…”
Gil, already wanting to pull his hair out because the festival was very close, replied, “Naomi, it doesn’t matter, forget Jerusalem, write about whatever you want…”
After that statement, Naomi sat down and wrote the song that can be said to have become the unofficial anthem of the State of Israel. The only song that, no matter whom you stop on the street now—secular, religious, traditional, straight, gay, ultra-Orthodox, it doesn’t matter who—they will know the lyrics by heart.
The song is called “Jerusalem of Gold,” and how Naomi came to write it and what exactly she wrote in it, for that, you’ll have to wait for the next part 🙂
Much love & respect,
Shay
let me know what you think about the story in the comments below.
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