After the war broke out on October 7, Israeli singer Rona Kenan found herself performing in unbearably difficult settings: at funerals, in hospitals and in front of soldiers before they entered battle. It was in these intense moments that something sharpened in her, a deeper appreciation for the artist’s role as “something for someone.”

In this episode of Song of Hope, Kenan performs the song “Come Home” and speaks about the quiet hope that seeps in through the cracks even in these days of fear and pain.

The song “Shuvi Lebeitech” was written by celebrated poet Dahlia Ravikovitch, recipient of the Israel Poetry Prize in 1998. Many of her poems have been set to music, but this one is unique, as it was originally written to accompany a song by composer Shem Tov Levi. Its subject is a young girl, described as a “wounded bird,” who is called to return home.
In November 2023, Haaretz music critic Ben Shalev wrote that “no other song touches so deeply and fully on the entire spectrum of emotions invoked by the tragedy of the hostages.”