Alive!!!

 

If any Israeli song is due for revival in our difficult times, it’s this one.

This is Ofra Haza performing "Hai" (Alive) and winning Israel's nomination for the 1983 Eurovision song contest held that year in Munich, Germany.

She went on to be first runner-up at that year's Eurovision competition, and the song has ever since been an Israeli and Jewish anthem of hope, survival and resilience.

The Eurovision competition was held that year in Munich, Germany, a location fraught with painful associations for Jews and Israelis, from its central role in Nazi era Germany to the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September terror organisation when the city hosted the Olympic games. 

In 1983 First Lebanon War was raging, as after years of constant rocket attacks and terror assaults launched into northern Israel by Yasser Arafat's PLO in southern Lebanon, Israel tried to restore security to the residents of northern Israel, whose children were growing up spending as much time in communal bomb shelters as their own homes. 

Meanwhile, the Cold War was also still in play. In the Soviet Union, growing numbers of Jews risked everything to live as cultural and religious Jews, fighting for the right to learn and speak Hebrew, the right to observe their Jewish faith, and most of all the right to emigrate to the Jewish homeland in Israel.

Many of these brave Jewish activists in the totalitarian Soviet Union were at the time sitting in prisons in Soviet cities and the infamous Siberian prison camps. Others had been fired from their jobs and labeled "parasites" for not working, a designation that often led to arrest. Soviet Jewry's struggle was alluded to in Ofra Haza's fierce celebration of Jewish life and survival, especially the line: "my sons seeking to return home".

Here are the deeply symbolic lyrics Ofra Haza sang (my translation):

Hear, my brothers,

I'm still alive!

And my two eyes are still raised towards the light

I’ve many thorns

Yet many flowers

And ahead of me too many years to count

I ask,

And I pray:

It's good that we have not yet lost our hope

A hymn passes

Through generations

Like a spring that flows eternal

Alive, alive, alive

Yes I'm still alive

That's the song my grandfather

Sang yesterday to my father

And today I’m still 

I'm still alive, alive, alive

The nation of Israel is alive 

That's the song my grandfather

Sang yesterday to my father

And today I’m still

My days are busy (alive, alive)

As are my nights (alive, alive)

And in my skies the pillar of fire still rises

I'll always sing: alive, alive!

And I'll reach out: alive, alive!

To my friends from over the seas 

I ask...

Alive, alive...

Listen my brothers,

I'm still alive!

And my two eyes are still raised towards the light 

So welcome

To all my guests

And to my sons seeking to return home

I ask...

Alive, alive...

Alive! I'm still alive, alive, alive!!!

שמעו אחי,

אני עוד חי

ושתי עיני עוד נישאות לאור.

רבים חוחי

אך גם פרחי

ולפני שנים רבות מספור.

אני שואל

ומתפלל

טוב שלא אבדה עוד התקווה.

עובר מזמור

מדור לדור,

כמעיין מאז ועד עולם

אני שואל...

חי, חי, חי

כן, אני עוד חי.

זה השיר שסבא

שר אתמול לאבא

והיום אני.

אני עוד חי, חי, חי,

עם ישראל חי.

זה השיר שסבא

שר אתמול לאבא

והיום אני.

הומים ימי חי חי

ולילותי חי חי

ובשמי עמוד האש עוד קם.

אשיר בלי די, חי חי

אפרוש ידי חי חי

לידידי אשר מעבר ים.

אני שואל...

חי, חי, חי...

שמעו אחי,

אני עוד חי

ושתי עיני עוד נישאות לאור.

אז כה לחי

לכל אורחי

ולבני המבקשים לחזור.

אני שואל...