10/09/2023
I had to share this: I grew up with this song and I still adore it but I never really knew what the inspiration behind it was, “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. If you have a moment please read. Thanks Cheryl Bianchi and The Write Off Room for posting this, great club in Studio City, CA, go check it out:
Did you know that “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was written, not about the mythical Land of Oz, but the homeland of the Jews - Israel?
The lyrics were written by Yip Harburg, the youngest of four children born to Russian-Jewish immigrants. His real name was Isidore Hochberg, and he grew up in a Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox Jewish home in New York.
The song's music was written by Harold Arlen, also a cantor's son. His real name was Hyman Arluck, and his parents were from Lithuania.
Together, Hochberg and Arluck wrote "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In writing it, the two men reached deep into their immigrant Jewish consciousness — framed by the pogroms of the past and the about to happen — and wrote an unforgettable melody set to near prophetic words.
"And the dreams that you dare to dream / Really do come true."
As we approach International and we declare let us honor those that dreamed of "the land that they heard once in a lullaby," those that never saw the Promised Land, and those who rose from the ashes to make the dream a reality.
