How many times have you looked for the words to an Israeli song, whether to use it for an educational activity, lesson, or a big event? Songs are fun; plus they are great for connecting and expressing identification with Israel, teaching Ivrit, the Hebrew language - and they reflect a lot of the changes in Eretz Yisrael and the State of Israel. In short, they offer an invaluable educational tool! 

With Israel approaching 60 years of statehood, why is it then difficult to find song texts in Hebrew - preferably translated, too - in a convenient form? Well, not only is it an enormous undertaking - it has been a long time since the Jewish Agency/WZO printed an Israel song book, the last authorized songster being Bekol Ram [1986. Youth & Hechalutz Department. Hadass Feuerstein & Gila Ansell Brauner]. The pragmatic answer is, firstly, that copyright payments are very expensive, even for non-profit use, - and secondly, there are so many wonderful Israeli songs that any also collection dates relatively quickly.

Over the years, the music scene has developed in many different directions, and enquiries come in all the time for a hands-on resource that educators and communities can use. The one bright light in all this has been the Internet, with composers who have come to agreements with various websites that carry the text of their songs, including those paying copyright fees to ACUM. So we would like to acknowledge the major websites like mp3music.co.il and shiron.net who have taken up the challenge of making Israeli songs accessible to all of us in Hebrew, and hebrewsongs.com in Australia, which has come to arrangements with various songwriters to transliterate and translate their songs, or carry translations of them.

However, this still leaves two gaps:

• Firstly, those composers who have not agreed to authorize paid-up copyright web copies or Creative Commons licensing - and we regret that we cannot bring their songs below;
• Secondly, the need for translations and transliteration, with authorization. There simply aren't enough translations around - we are limited to those sites with agreements or arrangements. For example, even though we have our own translation of  Gan Hashikmim from Bekol Ram, we couldn't upload it for you; nor can we offer a better translation of Chofim.

This all began as an idea for a Musical Challenge activity outline for Yom Ha'atzmaut, with a list of Israeli songs and where to find them, but it has rapidly grown into a bigger project:
To create a dynamic songster that addresses the needs of summer camps, singalong evenings, and Israel programming.
What we have come up with is a collection by subject of Israeli songs, presented with Hebrew and transliterated titles and their links in Hebrew and English [as available]. Where possible, this includes web pages with guitar chords. You can use the texts on the webpages we have linked in enlarged format for Powerpoint presentations, but please remember that this covers you for private and personal, not public use - even non-profits are obliged to pay copyright fees for songbooks, performances, and the like.

Our special thanks go to Aura Levin Lipski, Producer of hebrewsongs.com and George Jakubovitz for consultation, and to Naomi Goldberger, Shalhevet Laloum (Sherut Leumi), and Hannah Lehmann (Siah Yitzhak) who have chosen the songs and arranged the Musical Challenge questions.

We invite you to try our Israeli Song Finder out and to write in with more ideas, so that we can continue updating this collection, from time to time!

Further References:
For more information about Israeli Song and its Development, please see our eAcademy course on Israeli Society through its Popular Music and our programming series on Israeli Culture. You can also find a wealth of detail about artistes, composers and their works from our Biography section. An audio cassette series for Hebrew language teachers with accompanying booklet Lashir Ivrit is also on sale from our Bookshop [2001]. 

For top websites that feature Israeli songs with permission, please go to www.mp3music.co.il and www.shiron.net [Hebrew] and www.hebrewsongs.com [English].
Many artistes'  websites can be reached via www.israelhour.com/links.htm .  
For several major Israeli hip-hop artistes, access the bilingual website on http://www.tact-records.com/

Behatzlacha!

Gila Ansell Brauner,
Compiler & Editor