Zionism, music and Identity-building

Music played an important role in the spread of Zionism in the late19th and early-20th centuries. The pressing question for the early Zionists was how to bring the Jewish people together, to rekindle their love of their common heritage and especially of Israel. They thus created a “folk” music, in order to unify Jews throughout the world around their cause. The early Zionists were by and large Socialists, and their approach to music reflected their politics. Music, like almost everything else in life, needed to be dedicated to and related directly to the common good. It needed to serve as an inspiration for the new olim (immigrants to Israel), in its themes and musical characteristics. The topics of traditional Israeli folk songs are as disparate as love (for example, in “ErevShelShoshanim”–“Evening of Lilies”) and the physical construction of the new state (as in “HavuLivenim“–Carry the Bricks). But the unifying characteristic of these songs is wistful recollection of the experiences of living in Israel and fulfilling the national destiny. Each community in Jewish diaspora also had its own musical style, often influenced by its host society. Jewish musicians in British -ruled Palestine and in the early State of Israel thus developed a distinctive musical style, drawing heavily on European tonality, but coloring it with “eastern” or “exotic” rhythm.With the first wave of immigrants to the Land of Israel in the 1880s came the musical traditions of Europe. In fact, many of the earliest songs simply reused melodies familiar from the old country, but applied to them new words that reflected the nature of life in pre-state Israel.After the War of Independence in 1948, the themes of Israeli folk songs began to change. Rather than describing the pastoral scenes or the construction of the Land of Israel, they began to reflect the political reality of the new state. Songs were composed memorializing fallen friends and describing warfare, the defense of Jewish villages against their enemies, and the perpetual desire of the Jewish people for peace.With the establishment of the State of Israel came an enormous influx of new olim from more heterogeneous backgrounds. The folk music of the country reflected this new variety.The folk music created in the past century thus remains significant not only for Israel but for Jews across the world thus creating a semblance of unity and common identification.