A Watershed in Retrospect (The Yom Kippur War Twenty Years On
- RAK REKA No. 18)
Activity Ideas
The Social Impact of the War - Themesongs
Music and Drama Activity
For use with: The precis of Moni Alon's analysis, in Implications
Note: This activity is suitable for senior high upwards.
It should follow an activity presenting the events of the war
at the Israeli level - and precede an activity about the peace
process.
Outline:
A choral, dance or creative movement programme can be planned
to dramatize mood and reactions in Israel to the Yom Kippur War
[hope, lobbying, demonstrations versus materialism and alienation].
Moni Alon's ideas can be used to guide a discussion.
Themesongs:
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00tx0
and www.hebrewsongs.com
If the popular and children's songs of the early Aliyot reflected
agricultural settlement and early industrialization in the state-to-be,
then the songs of the late 60s and early 70s reflect a changing
Israeli society and public opinion.
In 1967, the Six Day War songs focused on victories, comradeship,
Jerusalem, spirituality and present peace. (Sharm el Sheikh,
Yerushalayim Shel Zehav, etc.)
In 1973, they focus more assertively on the wish for peace, recall
suffering and ask more questions. This can already be seen in
Shir Lashalom, which was written before the Yom Kippur War and
then adopted by the public, and renowned for becoming the song
of the Peace camp after the performance on the night of Yitzhak
Rabin's assassination (Nov. 4th 1995).
Questions and personal wishes can certainly be seen, albeit more
lyrically in Lu Yehi. Part of the difference stems
from the ideological outlooks of their composers.
Al Hadvash ve'al Ha'oketz is almost the antithesis
of these sentiments – classically pastoral, optimistic,
more up-beat.
To this group of songs, one may add those symbolizing the banalities
and materialism of everyday life which appeared just before the
war - portraying an increasingly centered society - and the somewhat
later songs of other, essentially young, Israelis whose disorientation,
protest, or disaffection led them to choose life abroad. (Yoshev
be San Franciso..., Yoshev al Hagader...)
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