{"id":64067,"date":"2020-09-27T17:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=64067"},"modified":"2020-09-23T16:37:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T14:37:14","slug":"24-05-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=64067","title":{"rendered":"HOW THE BEATLES INSPIRED A YOM KIPPUR WAR SONG OF HOPE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>HOW THE BEATLES INSPIRED A YOM KIPPUR WAR SONG OF HOPE<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

LAHAV HARKOV<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Naomi Shemer set out to write a Hebrew cover of “Let It Be,” and ended up with a poignant song on the Yom Kippur War.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naomi Shemer. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the summer of 1973, Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer, best known for writing \u201cJerusalem of Gold,\u201d set out to write a Hebrew cover of the Beatles\u2019 classic \u201cLet it Be,\u201d which frequently played on Israeli radio.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when the Yom Kippur War broke out that October, the Beatles\u2019 hit became what Shemer later called \u201ca jumping-off point for an entirely new song.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shemer changed the lyrics to a prayer expressing hope for the battles to end and for IDF soldiers to return home peacefully.<\/span>
\nThe lyrics express longing for a better future, even when everything looks dark: \u201cThere is still a white sail on the horizon, facing a heavy black cloud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shemer wrote the song for singer Chava Alberstein, who had wanted to perform it at an event for pilots\u2019 wives.<\/span>
\n\u201cThe Hebrew version that I prepared for her had no connection to the original, but was about the concerns and fears of the war that had broken out a day or two earlier,\u201d Shemer later wrote of the songwriting process.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, she kept the Beatles\u2019 tune, but her husband, Mordechai Horowitz, on a reprieve from fighting in the war said: \u201cI won\u2019t let you waste this song on a foreign tune. This is a Jewish war, and you should give it a Jewish tune.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A handwritten draft of the lyrics in the National Library of Israel shows that Shemer originally wrote at the top of the page: \u201cFrom the songs of the Beatles – A Hebrew version,\u201d but changed it to \u201cMusic and Lyrics: Naomi Shemer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The draft includes a verse about someone \u201cbringing news standing at the door\u201d to tell a family about their loved one\u2019s death, which she later removed, because it was too sad, her daughter Lely Shemer wrote in an email Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

That day, Shemer was asked to perform on television, and she came up with an original tune for the song in the car on the way to the studio, a tune that she described as \u201cthe sigh and distress of the war.\u201d The song was broadcast the next day, and a day after that, Alberstein performed it on Army Radio.<\/span><\/p>\n

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