One of the greats of Israel cultural patrimony is dead. . .a real hero of the People. . .a woman who wrote songs and music that embodied all of our hopes and dreams in the Jewish State reborn:
'Jerusalem of Gold' composer passes away at 74
Greer Fay Cashman and Ronit Sela
Jun. 26, 2004
Israel's renowned composer and songwriter Naomi Shemer died Saturday morning in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital at the age of 74.
Shemer, composer of the famous "Jerusalem of Gold" (Yerushalayim shel zahav), will be laid to rest on Sunday at 6 p.m. in Kvutzat Kinneret cemetery in the Galilee, where many of Israel's pioneers are buried.
Prior to her death, Shemer asked that no eulogies be delivered in her funeral. Instead, she asked that three songs be sung: her own "Eucalyptus grove" and "Noah", and "There, the hills of the Golan Heights", written by the poet Rachel, who also lived in Kvutzat Kinneret and was buried at the cemetery there.
Radio and television programs were quickly rescheduled on Saturday and replaced with tributes to Shemer.
Shemer creator of the 'Blue-and-White song'
Naomi Shemer was born in 1930 in Kvutzat Kinneret, one of the socialist communities located at the shores of the Kinneret. She started playing the piano at the age of six and began writing songs in her 20s.
In 1967, then Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolek asked Shemer to write a song about the city. Several weeks after "Jerusalem of Gold" was first performed, the Six-Day War broke out, and the song became the war's anthem.
The Yom Kippur war of 1973 led Shemer to write another big hit, "Lu Yehi." Originally conceived as a Hebrew version of the Beatles' "Let it be," Shemer's husband persuaded her that the Hebrew words deserved a "more Israeli tune," and thus the blue-and-white song was born.
Shemer continued to produce lyric, personal, intimate songs of the land of Israel, reflecting the individual's perspectives and doubts, rather than the group collective experience of earlier songwriters. She was awarded the Israel Prize for Hebrew song in 1983.
Another one of her famous songs "Al kol elleh" (All of These), is a personal entreaty to the Almighty to protect "All of these/The honey and the sting/ The bitter and the sweet./ Don't uproot the rooted./ Don't forget the hope./ Take me back and I'll return/ To the good land."
What distinguished Naomi Shemer from other Israeli songwriters was her uncanny ability to reach into the soul of the nation and express its pride, its pain, its hope and its joy.
Many of her songs were so uplifting that they had the quality of hymns, which may explain their vast appeal.
Shemer didn't play inane rhyming games. Her poetry contained depth and wisdom – and yet the lyrics of her songs were sufficiently simple to enable everyone who heard them to identify with them.
Actor, singer and comedian Shaike Levy recalled on Saturday that Shemer had written a song for him when he left the army, and thus gave him his first chance to earn an income. Shemer's songs were so infectious that anyone could learn them in two minutes he said.
Yaffa Yarkoni, speaking to Israel Radio, related that in 1958 Shemer knocked on her door and said that she had some children's songs that she thought might interest her. "They were wonderful," said Yarkoni, who instantly made arrangements to record them.
Community singing star Sarele Sharon, who has been belting out Shemer's songs for decades, told Channel Two that she hoped Shemer had left unpublished compositions behind so that there could be some continuity of her work.
Shemer wrote not only of emotions, but also of the beauty of the country that she loved so dearly.
Teaching her songs in classrooms would foster more national pride amongst youth than anything they could gain from regular textbooks.
Singing – the best way to say goodbye
One of Israel's most prolific songwriters, who also sang her compositions on stage, radio and television, Shemer suffered from cancer for a very long time, but did not allow her illness to conquer her spirit.
When popular singer Benny Amdurski was dying from cancer, she wrote a special song for him that enabled him to say goodbye in the way he knew best – singing and strumming his guitar.
Following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, she composed the music to a Hebrew translation of Walt Whitman's 'O Captain My Captain' that was frequently aired on radio for more than a year after Rabin's death.
Though ailing, she responded to the request of Education Minister Limor Livnat to chair the committee that awarded this year's Israel Prize for contributions to Israeli music to Yehoram Gaon and Gil Aldema, who have each performed and recorded many of her compositions.
Fellow Israel Prize laureate and equally prolific songwriter Ehud Manor, who shared many platforms with Shemer, said that her words and her wisdom would always be with him.
Popular storyteller, Dudu Elharar was at her bedside for most of the past week regaling her with his wit. While her body became weaker, her mind remained perfectly clear, and she kept urging him to tell her more funny stories, to which she reacted with peals of laughter.
It was somehow comforting to learn that she had left this world laughing.
Ynet initiated a Farewell to Naomi project that speedily absorbed scores of eulogies from ordinary Israelis who had become spiritually orphaned with Shemer's death.
May her memory be blessed.
Talkback (moderated). Please include your first and last names, your city and country.
Doron Spielman, Maale Adumim: Naomi Shemer's heart and her rhythm helped guide me back to my roots on Aliyah to the Land of Israel.
Christian Runkel, Remscheid, Germany:
Jerusalem of Gold makes me feel homesick whenever I hear it.
Yoel Nitzarim, Skokie, Illinois:
Not only Israeli children sing Naomi Shemer's songs: my two daughters sang her songs in the local Solomon Schechter Day School during their nine years in the system. Our home has been lit up with the distinctly Jewish/Israeli tones and pitches, the lively nostalgic, hauntingly yearning lyrics of this great, great composer. Her loss is a loss for the entire Jewish people; her life is one of the most important gifts of life received by the Jewish people in modern times.
Next week I will be in Jerusalem. I know that my dreams will be full of the beauty and majesty of "Jerusalem of Gold." May Ms. Shemer's memory be for a blessing.
JERUSALEM OF GOLD
The mountain air is clear as water
The scent of pines around
Is carried on the breeze of twilight,
And tinkling bells resound.
The trees and stones there softly slumber,
A dream enfolds them all.
So solitary lies the city,
And at its heart -- a wall.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
The wells ran dry of all their water,
Forlorn the market square,
The Temple Mount dark and deserted,
In the Old City there.
And in the caverns in the mountain,
The winds howl to and fro,
And no-one takes the Dead Sea highway,
That leads through Jericho.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
But as I sing to you, my city,
And you with crowns adorn,
I am the least of all your children,
Of all the poets born.
Your name will scorch my lips for ever,
Like a seraph's kiss, I'm told,
If I forget thee, golden city,
Jerusalem of gold.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
The wells are filled again with water,
The square with joyous crowd,
On the Temple Mount within the City,
The shofar rings out loud.
Within the caverns in the mountains
A thousand suns will glow,
We'll take the Dead Sea road together,
That runs through Jericho.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
A translation from the official site of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1088231176241&p=1078027574097
[ Back to the Article ]
Copyright 1995-2004 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
'Jerusalem of Gold' composer passes away at 74
Greer Fay Cashman and Ronit Sela
Jun. 26, 2004
Israel's renowned composer and songwriter Naomi Shemer died Saturday morning in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital at the age of 74.
Shemer, composer of the famous "Jerusalem of Gold" (Yerushalayim shel zahav), will be laid to rest on Sunday at 6 p.m. in Kvutzat Kinneret cemetery in the Galilee, where many of Israel's pioneers are buried.
Prior to her death, Shemer asked that no eulogies be delivered in her funeral. Instead, she asked that three songs be sung: her own "Eucalyptus grove" and "Noah", and "There, the hills of the Golan Heights", written by the poet Rachel, who also lived in Kvutzat Kinneret and was buried at the cemetery there.
Radio and television programs were quickly rescheduled on Saturday and replaced with tributes to Shemer.
Shemer creator of the 'Blue-and-White song'
Naomi Shemer was born in 1930 in Kvutzat Kinneret, one of the socialist communities located at the shores of the Kinneret. She started playing the piano at the age of six and began writing songs in her 20s.
In 1967, then Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolek asked Shemer to write a song about the city. Several weeks after "Jerusalem of Gold" was first performed, the Six-Day War broke out, and the song became the war's anthem.
The Yom Kippur war of 1973 led Shemer to write another big hit, "Lu Yehi." Originally conceived as a Hebrew version of the Beatles' "Let it be," Shemer's husband persuaded her that the Hebrew words deserved a "more Israeli tune," and thus the blue-and-white song was born.
Shemer continued to produce lyric, personal, intimate songs of the land of Israel, reflecting the individual's perspectives and doubts, rather than the group collective experience of earlier songwriters. She was awarded the Israel Prize for Hebrew song in 1983.
Another one of her famous songs "Al kol elleh" (All of These), is a personal entreaty to the Almighty to protect "All of these/The honey and the sting/ The bitter and the sweet./ Don't uproot the rooted./ Don't forget the hope./ Take me back and I'll return/ To the good land."
What distinguished Naomi Shemer from other Israeli songwriters was her uncanny ability to reach into the soul of the nation and express its pride, its pain, its hope and its joy.
Many of her songs were so uplifting that they had the quality of hymns, which may explain their vast appeal.
Shemer didn't play inane rhyming games. Her poetry contained depth and wisdom – and yet the lyrics of her songs were sufficiently simple to enable everyone who heard them to identify with them.
Actor, singer and comedian Shaike Levy recalled on Saturday that Shemer had written a song for him when he left the army, and thus gave him his first chance to earn an income. Shemer's songs were so infectious that anyone could learn them in two minutes he said.
Yaffa Yarkoni, speaking to Israel Radio, related that in 1958 Shemer knocked on her door and said that she had some children's songs that she thought might interest her. "They were wonderful," said Yarkoni, who instantly made arrangements to record them.
Community singing star Sarele Sharon, who has been belting out Shemer's songs for decades, told Channel Two that she hoped Shemer had left unpublished compositions behind so that there could be some continuity of her work.
Shemer wrote not only of emotions, but also of the beauty of the country that she loved so dearly.
Teaching her songs in classrooms would foster more national pride amongst youth than anything they could gain from regular textbooks.
Singing – the best way to say goodbye
One of Israel's most prolific songwriters, who also sang her compositions on stage, radio and television, Shemer suffered from cancer for a very long time, but did not allow her illness to conquer her spirit.
When popular singer Benny Amdurski was dying from cancer, she wrote a special song for him that enabled him to say goodbye in the way he knew best – singing and strumming his guitar.
Following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, she composed the music to a Hebrew translation of Walt Whitman's 'O Captain My Captain' that was frequently aired on radio for more than a year after Rabin's death.
Though ailing, she responded to the request of Education Minister Limor Livnat to chair the committee that awarded this year's Israel Prize for contributions to Israeli music to Yehoram Gaon and Gil Aldema, who have each performed and recorded many of her compositions.
Fellow Israel Prize laureate and equally prolific songwriter Ehud Manor, who shared many platforms with Shemer, said that her words and her wisdom would always be with him.
Popular storyteller, Dudu Elharar was at her bedside for most of the past week regaling her with his wit. While her body became weaker, her mind remained perfectly clear, and she kept urging him to tell her more funny stories, to which she reacted with peals of laughter.
It was somehow comforting to learn that she had left this world laughing.
Ynet initiated a Farewell to Naomi project that speedily absorbed scores of eulogies from ordinary Israelis who had become spiritually orphaned with Shemer's death.
May her memory be blessed.
Talkback (moderated). Please include your first and last names, your city and country.
Doron Spielman, Maale Adumim: Naomi Shemer's heart and her rhythm helped guide me back to my roots on Aliyah to the Land of Israel.
Christian Runkel, Remscheid, Germany:
Jerusalem of Gold makes me feel homesick whenever I hear it.
Yoel Nitzarim, Skokie, Illinois:
Not only Israeli children sing Naomi Shemer's songs: my two daughters sang her songs in the local Solomon Schechter Day School during their nine years in the system. Our home has been lit up with the distinctly Jewish/Israeli tones and pitches, the lively nostalgic, hauntingly yearning lyrics of this great, great composer. Her loss is a loss for the entire Jewish people; her life is one of the most important gifts of life received by the Jewish people in modern times.
Next week I will be in Jerusalem. I know that my dreams will be full of the beauty and majesty of "Jerusalem of Gold." May Ms. Shemer's memory be for a blessing.
JERUSALEM OF GOLD
The mountain air is clear as water
The scent of pines around
Is carried on the breeze of twilight,
And tinkling bells resound.
The trees and stones there softly slumber,
A dream enfolds them all.
So solitary lies the city,
And at its heart -- a wall.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
The wells ran dry of all their water,
Forlorn the market square,
The Temple Mount dark and deserted,
In the Old City there.
And in the caverns in the mountain,
The winds howl to and fro,
And no-one takes the Dead Sea highway,
That leads through Jericho.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
But as I sing to you, my city,
And you with crowns adorn,
I am the least of all your children,
Of all the poets born.
Your name will scorch my lips for ever,
Like a seraph's kiss, I'm told,
If I forget thee, golden city,
Jerusalem of gold.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
The wells are filled again with water,
The square with joyous crowd,
On the Temple Mount within the City,
The shofar rings out loud.
Within the caverns in the mountains
A thousand suns will glow,
We'll take the Dead Sea road together,
That runs through Jericho.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of
bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.
A translation from the official site of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1088231176241&p=1078027574097
[ Back to the Article ]
Copyright 1995-2004 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
posted by Rabbi David Novak at
Sunday, June 27, 2004
