Eretz-Israel

House of Hebrew Songs, Music Center, National Library of Israel

A resource of the National Library of Israel, the website, “House of Hebrew Songs” is, as its name implies, a home for Hebrew song. This site houses rare performances, songbooks and scores, archival footage and posters, as well as information about the songs themselves. At present, the site includes around ten-thousand Hebrew songs, originally drawn from Kol Israel radio broadcasts between 1950-1970. A wide variety of musical styles and different languages are represented in the music available through this resource.

Yechidi Laderech Li Etse'a

"Alone I set out on the road," wrote Lermontov, the great Russian poet, in 1841. This line has been sung many times, as it came from the very popular Russian romance, "Vyhozhu odin ja na dorogu" (Alone I set out on the road). The song travelled all the way from Russia to Israel during the second Aliya, which consisted of many Russian immigrants. These immigrants, who left their homes in Europe and arrived in a desolate country in the Middle East, could feel themselves as the lonely traveler of this romantic song.

Bin Tavinu Liqnot Bina Ha'azinu

Rabbi Yisrael Najara (1550?-1625), a poet and a composer, was born to a distinguished family of Jews from Spain. He lived and worked in Damascus, Safed, and Gaza. He was one of the greatest Hebrew poets in the period after the expulsion from Spain.