Shlomo Carlebach’s musical influence endures across the Jewish world, more than a century after his birth.
George Gershwin: A Jewish Voice in the American Soundscape
“I think that many of my themes are Jewish in feeling, although they are purely American in style,” Gershwin, one of the greatest composers in U.S. history, said. His wondrous music still defies categorization.
The Secret Chord: Leonard Cohen Composes “Hallelujah”
He only began writing songs seriously at the age of 30, and started singing a few years later. A proud Jew who spent time living in a Buddhist monastery in California, he used poetry and music to express both the holiest and the darkest parts of the human soul. His most famous song, whose story we tell here, is likely one you know, even if you’ve never heard Leonard Cohen sing it in his own voice.
Yotam Haim’s “Wings of Spirit”
Without knowing how to read music, a heartbroken high school student composed a melody to words by Rabbi Kook that gave her strength. When the song spread its wings and began circulating widely, she could hardly believe how many others found in it the same strength and comfort it had offered her. This is the story of how that song, composed in the 1990s, made its way onto an album commemorating the late Yotam Haim, who was abducted by Hamas into Gaza.
When Ofra Haza Took America by Storm
February 23 marks 25 years since the Israeli singing legend’s death. Haza embraced her Jewish-Yemenite roots through her music and managed to connect with a vast global audience, particularly in the United States.
From the Battle of Culloden to the Kindergartens of Israel: The Story of a Hanukkah Song
Foreign influences on modern Jewish culture are nothing new to us. We did, after all, spend millennia wandering the Earth. Still, sometimes the path of a piece of music can be extremely unpredictable. This is the story of a Hanukkah song which began as something entirely different, created in another world, before eventually developing into an Israeli children’s favorite.
In the Very Heart of Gaza: Soldiers Sing a Prayer for the Hostages’ Release
A prayer dedicated to “our brethren… who remain in distress and captivity”, has accompanied the Jewish nation since the ninth century. It was sung during WWI, at Hasidic music festivals, and just recently at a spontaneous gathering of soldiers in a darkened house in Gaza, after they had lost two of their beloved commanders
“Bless the mother of the child with a maid and a servant”: Birthing Songs of Yemen’s Jewish Women
“If only you had seen, O my sisters! What I experienced during childbirth” – These songs sung by Yemenite Jewish women helped them regain their silenced voices, by directly addressing the difficulties of childbirth and life in a patriarchal society
An Inimitable Talent: The Qanun Player Yusuf Za’arur
Yusuf Za’arur was a talented musician and expert qanun player who served for many years as the musical director of the Radio Baghdad Orchestra. When he immigrated to Israel, he had to fight for recognition, but his great talent led him to renewed success in Israel as well
An Eternal Love Song: 10 Classic Israeli Hits Inspired by the “Song of Songs”
A tour through the Bella and Harry Wexner Libraries of Sound and Song – Legacy Heritage Foundation at the National Library of Israel reveals the biblical Song of Songs is ever-present in contemporary Israeli music
