“Hallelujah” became the song of the late field observer Roni Eshel. Her parents listened to it together when Roni was still in her mother’s womb. When Ran Danker arrived at Roni’s funeral, leaving his own one month old baby at home, he sang “Hallelujah” at the family’s request.
“I found myself singing a cappella to 30,000 people, and the entire audience joined in,” he recalls. “I thought about my daughter at home, and about the fact that this is our life here, and I do not want to run away from it. Even though my daughter has just been born, I want to go out and meet people, to embrace and be embraced. It melts some of the fear.”
In this episode of Song of Hope, Danker reflects on the new meaning his music has taken on during the war, and performs a heartfelt version of Shlomo Artzi’s “Come, Let’s Let It Go,” which has become his love song to his partner and their baby.
Up Next in Season 1
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Song Of Hope - Episode 3 - Valerie Ha...
“It was strange for me that I have to clarify my position that I denounce murder and the horrible acts that happened on October 7,” says Valerie Hamaty. “To be in a place where you have to prove your innocence when you have done nothing wrong makes you wonder if you belong.”
Valerie Hamaty is a ...
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Song Of Hope - Episode 4 - Jimbo J
Even when he fled with his wife and young daughters on October 7 from Or HaNer, the kibbutz he calls home in southern Israel, Jimbo J could not yet imagine the magnitude of the disaster unfolding around him. Only months later, when he drove through the quiet forests on his way back to the kibbutz...
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Song Of Hope - Episode 5 - Maya Belsi...
With a little girl on her lap and a baby in her womb, musician Maya Belsitzman knew she had to do everything she could to avoid falling apart because of the war. She found herself returning again and again to “Shir Mishmar” (“Guarding Song”). Poet Nathan Alterman wrote this poem out of concern fo...
