“A lot of people give up because they think that what is happening now is how it will stay. In moments like these, I remember my grandmother who immigrated to Israel and founded Kibbutz Hamadia with her own hands. There are photos of her digging into the rock with a pickaxe,” says Aya Korem. “The only way to look at what is happening now is as a call to action. You are the people you have been waiting for. This is how I try to act.”

In this episode of Song of Hope, Korem performs a heartfelt rendition of Yehuda Poliker’s “Chalon Layam Hatichon” (“A Window to the Mediterranean Sea”). She speaks about intergenerational trauma preserved in song, about the search for comedy at the heart of tragedy and about the unforgettable performance that earned her a lifetime supply of preserved gefilte fish jars.