Lee Diamond – If I forget Thee O Tel Aviv
Ancient And New
With the ancient feeding the new
And the new drawing upon the ancient
Tel —layers of civilization
Aviv —Spring or rebirth
Tel Aviv: an ancient people reborn and
Renewed in their land
The New Jew in the ancient land
Before the State
Before independence
Gray seashells
White seashells
An allotment of land
Family by family
A kiosk
A lamp post
A water tower
The first jail
Wide boulevards
A gymnasium (High school) called Herzliah
The tongue of the prophets on our virgin lips
Hatikvah –Hope deep in our hearts
And our soul
The Jewish soul beat true
The Tanach –our authenticity
Our history
Our tradition
From the sands
Emerged boulevards
And homes–new homes
Bauhaus design
The white city
The renewed Jews In their ancient land.
Shabbat
Tisha bI’Av
Yom Kippur
Succot
Maccabea
Purim –Ad di Lo Yada
Costumes of Esther Queen
Of Mordekhai and Haman
Hora Hora Hora –all through the night
The halil flute –“zum gali gali
Hechalutz lemaan Avoda”
The accordion
The poetry of old
And new
The paintings and landscapes
Of the old and new
The soldier
The Jewish soldier
The bar Kochba of old
Now the muscular and shapely new Jew
Tel Aviv
Jews build a city!
Jews with wheelbarrows
And cement
Jewish “gazoz”
And falafel
Theatre and music -“habima”
The Dybuk
The Trumpledor cemetery
Mezuzot on every doorpost
Everyone at a Seder
All Jewish
All Hebrew
All Jewish ethnicities
We didn’t just wait
~~Not anymore ~~~
We built a Jewish state before we declared it.
In ancient / modern
Tel Aviv
And It was here that we declared
Our independence
And flew our flag
And danced
If We Forget Thee O Tel Aviv
Old but new Tel Aviv
Old but new Israel
Let’s Dance the Hora!
And celebrate Tel Aviv
