By Eileen Wingard in La Jolla, California
Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) was declared a national holiday in Israel in May, 1968, commemorating the unification of the city the previous year, following the Six Day War. This year, 2026, it was celebrated on May 15, beginning at sunset the night before.
On Thursday, June 4, at 2 p.m. in the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family JCC, our Treasures from the Jewish Music Collection: “Music for Yom Yerushalayim” program will feature 14 recorded songs about that revered city.
I will be hosting the program. My guest will be Jerusalem-born Sari Esserman, who will introduce several of the songs and tell us about her early life in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. Currently a resident of La Jolla, Sari is a respected artist, working in pottery and producing vibrant paintings in oils and pastels.
Her parents came to Jerusalem from Persia and Iraq and settled in Kiryat Moshe, one of the garden neighborhoods of Jerusalem, founded in 1923 with funds from the Moses Montefiore Fund in London and named in honor of Moses (Moshe) Montefiore. Many residents were from the Religious Zionist movement, Mizrachi, and Sari grew up with a modern orthodox education.
After serving in the IDF as a paramedic, Sari graduated from the Wingate Institute with a degree in Physical Education and a minor in Special Education.
She is the mother of four daughters, has three sons-in-law and two grandchildren and is an active member of Congregation Adat Yeshuran.
Sari will introduce the first song in this free recorded program, “Yerushalayim,” written in 1928, with lyrics by the Israeli poet, Avigdor Hameiri and music by Moshe Rapaport. It is one of the most beloved songs about the city. It begins (English translation):
“From the summit of Mt. Scopus,
O Jerusalem, peace unto you,
For one hundred generations I have dreamt of you,
To merit, to cry
And behold the light of your countenance.”
It will be sung by Israeli singer Rina Singer.
Berlin-born Max Janowski, composer of Jewish liturgical music and choir director at the Isaiah Congregation in Hyde Park, Chicago, composed another melody to Hameiri’s inspiring words which will be sung by Terry Alexander.
Other Israeli voices will be Amelia Ishak with the Jerusalem Trio, singing the words from Psalm 135, Im Eshkacheck Yerushalayim (If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem) in a setting by Israeli composer Dina Smorganski, and Yehoram Gaon singing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) by Naomi Shemer, the song written after the Six Day War, which has become a second Israeli anthem.
From the Golden Age of Cantors, we will hear Russian-born Chazen Berele Chagy singing a liturgical rendition,Yerushalayim. He served as the cantor of the Borough Park Synagogue in Brooklyn.
Other cantors to be heard will be Joseph Maloveny, of New York’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue, whom our late local resident, Rhoda Gaylis, coached when they were in South Africa. He will be heard in a setting of words from Psalm 137 as well as in Simchu et Yerushalayim (Celebrate Jerusalem).
Italian Cantor Mario Botoshansky will sing Israeli composer, Aharon Ron’s Shalu Shalom Yerushalayim (Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem), words from Psalm 122, and our own late San Diego Cantor Sheldon Merel, will be heard in a version of L’Shana Haba B’rushalayim (Next Year in Jerusalem), from Haggadah, a Passover Oratorio by Morton Gold.
San Diego resident, Judith Rubenstein, will be heard in a more traditional Lah-sha-nah Hah-bah-ah.
Another voice frequently heard in San Diego is Sam Glaser, whose pop song influenced, Uvney Yerushalayim (Build Jerusalem) is on the Playlist.
When my daughter, Myla, was studying at the Hebrew University, during her junior year abroad, my late husband Hal visited her. We will listen to his “If I Forget You, Oh Jerusalem,” inspired by that visit.
Lach Yerushalayim (For thee, Jerusalem), with words by Amos Ettinger and music by Eli Rubenstein and Sisu Et Yerushalayim (Rejoice with Jerusalem), text from Isaiah, music by Akiva Nof, will be sung by NFTY Singers, a choir of Reform Congregation Youth. The latter song won a top prize at the 1970 Hassidic Song Festival and was choreographed into a popular Israeli dance by Dani Dassa.
With lyrics that span the ages, “Music for Yom Yerushalayim” will feature songs that celebrate the city of Jerusalem, a city central to Jewish hopes and dreams.
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Eileen Wingard is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.