A ‘Song of Zion’ for Jewish survival

Can music open minds? I like to think so.

“Song of Zion” came to me as I was driving home from a lecture about delegitimization – the combination of forces that has made Israel, my adopted home for the past 28 years, the only country on Earth whose very right to exist is challenged in polite society.

Pulling over, I grabbed a pencil and scribbled down some lyrics. The next day, I added the tune. Within a week, I brought the song to my producer, David Epstein of Shemesh Studios, who recorded it as part of a subsequently released CD called “Voices From the Other Side.”

As a performer, I tend to favor storytelling songs that qualify as light entertainment. But today, when the New York Times mocks PM Benjamin Netanyahu as “hysterical” for wanting to deny nuclear arms to a country that has publicly called for the annihilation of everything I hold dear, I realize that times have changed.

It’s time to sing for Jewish survival. It’s time for a Song of Zion.

Song of Zion

Words and music © Sandy Cash

If I said “I love her”
Would you click your tongue for shame?
Would your fingers drum the headlines
To hint I share the blame?

And if I said “I love her”
Would you crown me with her crimes:
Tribal colonizer thinks the Bible’s wiser
Than the staff of the New York Times

Righteous beauty, all the rage
A bold new truth to try on
Model for the mirror as you sing a song of Zion

If I said “I love her”
Would you glance around in fear?
Would you guide me toward a corner
To make sure your friends don’t hear?

And if I said “I love her”
Would you shake your head and stare?
Would you search my eyes until you find
The hate that you’re sure is there?

Righteous beauty, all the rage
A bold new truth to try on
Model for the mirror as you sing a song of Zion

But if I said, “I lost her”
I bet you’d come around
To admire the wheels of justice
Turning over new-scorched ground

And maybe I’d get used to
The acceptance that you give
But oh, my friend, my love and I
We would have rather lived.