The Hope of the Jewish People and the Wizard of Oz

A query upon opening Facebook is; " What is on your mind?

Upon seeing the swill that passes for "news" on today's "woke" mass media outlets were journalist integrity is now no longer exists. I yearn for the day that the people of the world will awaken to the fact that they are being manipulated by unscrupulous owners of the "Social Media" and mendacious liars who pervert the truth that is shown and printed. 

Above all else as a father and as a grandfather I hope and pray for sanity as I hope for an end to hatred,especially towards my people and my nation. It is this same  "Hope" of freedom from hate filled persecution that we Jews have yearned for, for centuries.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, the 1939 classic and Academy Award winning song from “Wizard of Oz” was composed by Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) a Jew whose family immigrated from Lithuania. The lyrics were written by Edgar Yipsel "Yip" Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg; April 8, 1896 – March 5, 1981)  the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who grew up in a Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox Jewish home in New York.

Together they put together a song that has won awards and garnered global fame. Among other things they won an Oscar in 1940 for “Best Music, Original Song” for “The Wizard of Oz” and the song was voted the number one song of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The song is about hope, that the bad times will one day be over. It is this feeling of hope within the song that we can all relate to and it is hope that helped the Jewish people through the ages. 

Yip and Harold did not know what the future held for the Jewish people when they wrote this song, but the question is; How much of their experience as Jews affected the lyrics. 

We as Jews can readily relate to the song. Our people experienced troubles throughout our history and they were tired of being in a sad place and yearned to be somewhere better. So when you apply this tremendous desire for hope that this song manifests in the Jewish people, the words of the song take on a whole new meaning.

[Verse 1]

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high

There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream,

Really do come true.

[Chorus]

Someday I’ll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.

Where troubles melt like lemon drops,

High above the chimney tops,

That’s where you’ll find me.

[Verse 2]

Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly

Birds fly over the rainbow

Why then, oh why can’t I?

[Outro]

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow

Why, oh why can’t I?

The song was first published in 1939, at a time when the Jews in Europe were coming under increased hostility. Their freedoms were being taken away, their identity being dragged through the dirt, and many of them were feeling isolated. They were trapped, unable to “fly”.

The song is about hope, that the bad times will one day be over. It is this feeling of hope within the song that we can all relate to and it is hope that helped the Jewish people through the Holocaust.

Yip did not know what the future held for the Jewish people when he wrote this song. The lyrics “chimney tops” take on a harrowing new meaning now that we know the horrors of the Holocaust. I am sure many Jews looked to the skies above Auschwitz’s chimney’s, longing for the day they were free.

It was less than ten years after the song was written that the most powerful words of the song were fulfilled.

“There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.”

We Jews have dreamed of returning to our ancestral homeland Eretz Yisrael - "Zion" ever since our expulsion in 135CE. We have dreamed of having a country of OUR own where we can live in freedom and to worship our maker as one people without the control of others. This dream was fulfilled in 1948 when the nation of Israel was reborn. If anything Israel is a testament to the Jewish people that the “dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”

It seems that our world is once again on the edge of dark times. This song reminds us that though we face uncertain events, we still have hope, and our hope is in "Him who blessed the people of Israel".