This is a hit in Israel.



More from Richard Silverstein

BERLIN

Why stay here

Everybody’s asking

When you can catch a plane and begin to breath.

Even the newly Orthodox are leaving

And getting far away from me

How long can family be an excuse?

The neighbor’s lived in LA for 15 years already

She says we need to shut that watchful eye,

And everyone who comes back from abroad

Tells me how good it is there.


Berlin, Berlin

Even if I forget my right hand

You’ll wait forever

For us to return to you.

Reichstag of Peace

And of the Euro and of light

For all your songs

I don’t have a passport.


Let’s be honest.

Grandpa and Grandma didn’t come here [Israel] because of Zionism,

They fled because they didn’t want to die.

And now they understand that here there’s no life [possible],

They’d rather we be far away than poor.

No, it’s not a fleeing for convenience’s sake

It’s fleeing flat out

To keep your head above the water.

Even our forefather Jacob went down [emigrated] to Egypt

Because rent there was a third

And salaries double.


Understand:

The whole world migrates everywhere

Only here is it considered betrayal of the [Jewish] people

By leaders who want us to remain alone

To remain afraid

Because everybody hates Jews.

And every time they open their mouths

They pin the yellow star on me again

Like a medal of honor

Like it’s a boutonniere.

They degrade all of us

Without a scrap of pride.

Liberate the Ghetto already

Let us live like a normal people.


I don’t really want anywhere else.

It’s cold there

Strange there

And Hebrew is the only language I love speaking.

Give me a bit of the Kinneret

If there’s any left, I’ll be happy.

But how long can we ignore tomorrow?

How can I raise kids in a place that

Chased away Dudu Zar ?