Rona Kenan: Shuvi Lebeitech (“Come Home”)

Following the war that broke out on October 7, the Israeli singer Rona Kenan found herself playing in unbearably difficult situations: at funerals, in hospitals and in front of soldiers before they went into battle. It was precisely these dramatic moments that sharpened something important within her – her appreciation that as an artist she has an opportunity to be “something for someone”. In a new episode of the online series “Song of Hope”, Kenan performs the song “Come Home” and talks about the hope that seeps in through the cracks even in these difficult days.

The song Shuvi Lebeitech was written by the renowned poet Dahlia Ravikovitch, recipient of the Israel Poetry Prize in 1998. Many of her poems have been set to music throughout the years, but this song stands out as it was initially written to music – Ravikovitch wrote it for a song written by Shem Tov Levi. The subject of its lyrics is a young girl, a ”wounded bird“, to whom the song calls to come home. Ben Shalev, music critic for the newspaper Haaretz, wrote in November 2023 that”no other song touches so deeply and wholly on the entire spectrum of emotions invoked by the tragedy of the hostages.”