הודעה מdorot memorialine Perhaps the most poignant song emerging out of the mass exodus from Europe was SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW. The lyrics were written by Yip Harburg. He was the youngest of four children born to Russian Jewish immigrants. His real name was Isidore Hochberg and he grew up in a Yiddish speaking, Orthodox Jewish home in New York. The music was written by Harold Arlen, a cantors son. His real name was Hyman Arluck and his parents were from Lithuania. Together, Hochberg and Arluck wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which was voted the 20th centurys number one song by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In writing it, the two men reached deep into their immigrant Jewish consciousness - framed by the pogroms of the past and the Holocaust about to happen - and wrote an unforgettable melody set to near prophetic words. Read the lyrics in their Jewish context and suddenly the words are no longer about wizards and Oz, but about Jewish survival: SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW WAY UP HIGH, THERES A LAND THAT I HEARD OF ONCE IN A LULLABY. SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW SKIES ARE BLUE, AND THE DREAMS THAT YOU DARE TO DREAM REALLY DO COME TRUE. SOMEDAY ILL WISH UPON A STAR AND WAKE UP WHERE THE CLOUDS ARE FAR BEHIND ME. WHERE TROUBLES MELT LIKE LEMON DROPS AWAY ABOVE THE CHIMNEY TOPS THATS WHERE YOULL FIND ME. SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW BLUEBIRDS FLY. BIRDS FLY OVER THE RAINBOW. WHY THEN, OH WHY CANT I? IF HAPPY LITTLE BLUEBIRDS FLY BEYOND THE RAINBOW WHY, OH WHY CANT I? The Jews of Europe could not fly. They could not escape beyond the rainbow. Harburg was almost prescient when he talked about wanting to fly like a bluebird away from the chimney tops. In the post-Auschwitz era, chimney tops have taken on a whole different meaning than the one they had at the beginning of 1939. Pinks mom is Judith Kugel. Shes Jewish of Lithuanian background. As Pink was belting the Harburg/Arlen song from the stage at the Acad
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 08:51:05 +0000
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