Hazzan Dulkin

This month, we celebrate the yin-and-yang holidays of Yom Ha’zikaron (Israeli Memorial Day) and Yom Ha’atzma-ut (Israeli Independence day): they literally come on each other’s heels: out of the somber mood of Memorial Day comes the jubilation and triumph of Independence Day. If you have ever been in Israel for these twin commemorations and celebrations, you know that not one person in the country is untouched by Memorial Day. It is most certainly not a day of shopping for furniture and getting good deals on spring sportswear: the barbeques are saved for the following day of celebration and everyone, everyone, has someone to mourn. The evening of Memorial Day gives way to jubilant celebration, complete with dance, song, and Israeli flags flown highly and proudly – the country moves on publicly from tears to joy.

The juxtaposition of these two holidays has always struck me as emblematic of what it means to be Israeli: to live in the tension between terror and hope, optimism and realism, complications and triumphs. The state’s very existence is a miracle of historical and diplomatic proportions; and, in these still-early years of the state, it continues to face extinction. Yet if you ask most Israelis, whether their roots are in Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, North or South America, they would not want to live anywhere else.

In 2008, when we celebrated the 60^th year of the state of Israel, a very special piece of music was made, the fruits of a very unlikely collaboration between the Gevatron, a traditional Israeli singing troupe with roots in the early Chalutznik/Kibbutznik movement, and Kobi Shimoni, Israel’s top hip-hop impresario otherwise known as “Subliminal.” The song, “Bat Shishim” (60 years old) combines these two unlikely sounds to produce a musical phenomenon. If you want to take a peek at the current sentiment and identity of today’s Israelis, this song tells you all you need to know. The chorus reads: “Because she’s true, she’s not a symbol, she’s not just a flag, nor a sign: the past is behind and she watches for what’s coming up.” The pairing of a musical institution like the Gevatron with Shimoni is like the Andrews Sisters recording a CD with Eminem; or Kanye West re-interpreting one of the songs by Peter, Paul and Mary. It simply would not happen here, but it absolutely does in Israel, all the time.

The song, originally recorded by the Gevatron in the 1970’s about an aging woman, has been re-interpreted and expanded upon by Shimoni to reflect on 60 years of Israeli-ness. “She” is no longer an aging woman, but a young and still-emerging state of Israel. The lyrics capture exactly the tension and the miracle of what it means to be an Israeli today, of the hope for a completely safe country, of the pride in its intake of olim (immigrants), of the vibrant Jewish culture (he even gives a few Mazal tovs and Chiri-biri-bims), and reminds us to never forget where we came from, or we won’t go anywhere. The kids at Camp Ramah were dancing to this all summer, participating in the celebration of Israel’s statehood while grooving to its infectious rhythm.

As we gather to celebrate Israel this month, please take a moment to kvell at the many musical and cultural fruits of its now 62-year history. If you have a moment, find the music video on YouTube (just search for “bat shishim), and marvel as you listen that there really is no place in the world like Israel.