There is a very small chance that you are not aware of the crisis currently unfolding in Israel. Pictures of destruction fill our screens, and headlines continue to announce death tolls and count the missing. Many members of the Cornell community attended a memorial held by Cornell Hillel on October 11, and President Pollack has sent two emails about these events.
Unfortunately, the news often has a dehumanizing effect — instead of being thought of as real people, the dead and missing are reduced to numbers, and a country becomes only its actions. Sides arise, and issues become polarized; many forget that these are real people and real lives being destroyed, not simply pawns in a political game. The lack of understanding and empathy for Israel is nothing new. However, there is so much more to a country and a people than what we see in days of war, and there is so much more to a nuanced political issue than what is covered in the news.
President Pollack said in her email, “in stressful moments like this, we need to embrace our shared humanity and be supportive of one another.” But how do we do that? With such a polarized issue, where people often refuse to look past their biases and the misinformation they have been fed, how can we possibly begin to hear each other? Maybe not by speaking, but there is something which has universally and historically brought people together: music.
Whether it is thousands joining their voices together in prayer at one of Israel’s holy sites — of which there are 1200 sacred Jewish sites, 150 Christian holy sites and more than 70 Muslim sites in Jerusalem alone — or people from all different countries singing along to Israel’s contribution to Eurovision, music not only brings the people of Israel together but the people of Israel together with the world. I believe it can bring us together again. Perhaps we can regain our empathy and see what is real, not by talking, but by simply listening. Just like us at Cornell and in the United States, the people of Israel want freedom, an end to terrorism and peace.
Arik Einstein
Arieh Lieb “Arik” Einstein was an Israeli singer, actor, comedian and screenwriter who was often called “the voice of Israel.” His music career marked the beginning of Israeli rock music, and showed how the old and new can combine, such as through his album Good Old Eretz Israel, which turned traditional Israeli poems into rock songs. Einstein also showed how music can help heal trauma through a song, “Ulay Tzarich Latet Leze Od Zman” (“Maybe You Should Give it Some Time”) in 2011 which honored the return of an abducted Israeli Defense Force soldier. Einstein said that his experience living in the Middle East inspired his music; one of his most famous songs is about maintaining hope and improving the world.
Noa Kirel
Called “Israel’s biggest pop star,” Noa Kirel is a 20-year-old Israeli singer, dancer and actress. Noa grew up in Tel Aviv and found first success at the age of 14 with her debut single “Medabrim.” In 2020, she enlisted in the IDF despite a medical exemption, saying she “decided to join and give a personal example to the youth who are following me.”
Kirel received international fame for her song “Unicorn,” which carried her to the finale of the 2023 Eurovision Competition and won her third place. Noa told The Times of Israel, “I hope that the contest will hearten citizens of Israel. My heart is with them, and I will do everything I can so that the people of Israel are proud of me.”
Yehuda Poliker
Yehuda Poliker was born in Haifa to Greek Holocaust survivors. The album which is largely considered his masterpiece, Ashes and Dust, merges rock, Greek and Arabic music in order to show his personal experience of growing up in Israel as the son of Auschwitz survivors. This album, which was incredibly influential in Israel, shows how the past continues to be an important part of the present. The album symbolizes how the people of Israel are connected by the shared trauma of the Holocaust, which is the reason the modern state of Israel was created in the first place, with the hope that it could be a safe place where the Jewish people could finally live in peace.
Omer Adam
Omer Adam is perhaps Israel’s most successful singer of all time. His career has shown how music can make a difference by empowering people and providing aid in times of crisis. His song “Tel Aviv” was the official anthem of Tel Aviv Pride in 2020. Also in 2020, Adam and other Israeli artists recorded a single, “Katan Aleinu”, to benefit hospitals battling COVID-19.
On his website, Adam is quoted saying, “I believe music has a healing power. It can show people an external place outside themselves, where they find happiness, humanity, and love. It touches all of us. No matter who we are, music was meant to connect us all.”
Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer was an Israeli singer and composer who was born on an Israeli kibbutz. She is best known for her song “Jerusalem of Gold,” which is considered the most loved Israeli song of all time. The Six Day War broke out three weeks after its release, and the troops who liberated Jerusalem sang the song by the Western Wall. When the Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973, it was Shemer’s Song “Lu Yehi” that was said to best express the feelings of those in Israel.
Shlomo Artzi
Voted the “17th great Israeli of all time” in 2005, Shlomo Artzi is an Israeli folk rock musician and son of Holocaust survivors. Artzi showed throughout his long career how music, and musical artists themselves, can make important social and political impacts. In March, Artzi turned down the Israel Prize due to the government’s new plan to undo Israel’s judicial system, telling The Times of Israel that instead of the prize he wished to receive “the loving, embracing, democratic Israel for which I sang my entire life.” He added, “To be part of the Israeli soundtrack — that’s the real prize I’ve won.”
These artists are not solitary voices — they represent the voices of many in Israel, those who have been murdered, who are missing or captured and who are awaiting the end of this horrifying act of terrorism. As their music reveals, all the people of Israel want — all they have wanted since the very beginning in 1948 — is freedom, democracy and peace instead of division.