Israel: Home of Hope
Re-released for Israel’s 75th anniversary

Israel is the Jewish home of hope, the place where our people was born in the age of Abraham and where, after the longest exile ever endured by a people, it was reborn in our time.

Proclaiming the State, on 14 May 1948, 5 Iyar 5708, David Ben Gurion said: “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and national identity was formed. Here they achieved independence and created a culture of national and universal significance. Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the world. Exiled from the Land of Israel the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all the countries of their dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their return and the restoration of their national freedom.”

We pray for it still, for there has hardly been a day in sixty years when the people of Israel have not lived without war or the fear of war, terror or the fear of terror.

Israel, brought into being three  years after the Jewish people stood eyeball to eyeball with the angel of death during the Holocaust, is the Jewish people’s collective affirmation of life. Its existence and achievements are living testimony to one of Judaism’s greatest messages to humankind: the principled defeat of tragedy by the power of hope. And though Israel was built by human hands, it is impossible not to sense beneath its history, the hand of heaven.

One sentence reverberated in my mind throughout this project, a line from Hallel: ‘This is the Lord’s doing. It is wondrous in our eyes.’ May these words and music open our minds and lift our hearts to the miracle of a land rebuilt, a people reborn, a promise fulfilled, a destiny regained.

1. The Jewish land of hope (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
2. Exodus: Theme Music (Written by Ernest Gold, courtesy Intersound / Sheridan Square Entertainment / EMI Music Publishing)
3. Though they no longer lived in the land, the land lived on in them (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
4. Im Eshkachech, If I Forget You (Performed and arranged by Shimon Craimer)
5. A holy people in a holy land (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
6. Ana Hashem: Truly God (Performed by Eli Gerstner and The Chevra, music by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, arranged by Eli Gerstner)
7. They left their land, their birthplace and their father’s house (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
8. Hasidah, The Stork (Performed by Shlomo Gronich and The Sheba Choir, composed and arranged by Shlomo Gronich, words by Haim Idisis)
9. The longest exile (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
10. Akevot Be-chol: Footprints in the Sand (Performed by Gad Elbaz, words by Tamar Asnafi, adapted by Benny and Gad Elbaz)
11. Whenever they could, they returned (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
12. Yedid Nefesh: Soul’s Beloved (Performed by Sam Glaser, music by S. and E. Zweig, words by Rabbi Eliezer Azikri)
13. The dream and the nightmare (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
14. Yerushalayim, Jerusalem (Composed and performed by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach)
15. Not one inch they could call home (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
16. Keili Keili, My God, My God (Performed and arranged by Shimon Craimer, words by Hannah Senesh.)
17. A pillar of cloud marked the place (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
18. Keil Maleh Rachamim, Memorial Prayer for the Dead (Performed by Shalom Katz, courtesy Hed-Arzi Music)
19. The State is born (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
20. Odecha, I Will Thank You (Performed by Moshe Haschel and The Ne’imah Singers, composed by Shalom Secunda, arranged by Raymond Goldstein)
21. So many prayers have been answered (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
22. Ki Malakhav: His Angels (Performed by Eli Gerstner and The Chevra, composed and produced by Eli Gerstner)
23. The bitter and the sweet (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
24. Al Kol Eileh, For All These (Performed and arranged by Shimon Craimer, words by Naomi Shemer)
25. The Ingathering (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
26. HaMasa, The Journey (Performed by The Sheba Choir, music by Shlomo Gronich, words by Haim Idisis)
27. And there was war (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
28. Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, Jerusalem of Gold (Performed by Sam Glaser, words by Naomi Shemer)
29. Seeking Peace (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
30. Inshallah, God Willing (Performed and arranged by Gad Elbaz, words by Moran Elbaz)
31. Hopes and Disappointments (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
32. Vehi She’amda, The Promise (Performed by Shimon Craimer, music and arrangement by Stephen Levey)
33. A people sustained by faith (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
34. Arim Roshi: I’ll Raise My Head (Performed by Shay Gabso, music by Ahuva Ozeri and Moshe Da’abol)
35. Remembering Jerusalem (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
36. Jerusalem (Performed by Matisyahu, written by Matisyahu Miller, Jimmy Douglass and Ivan Corraliza, courtesy of Epic Records)
37. Im Eshkachech 2, If I Forget You (Performed by Eli Gerstner and The Chevra, music composed by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, arranged by Yisroel Lamm)
38. Im Eshkachech 3, If I Forget You (Performed by Lev Tahor, music by Rabbi Motel Twersky, arranged by Leib Yaacov Rigler)
39. The journey is not yet over (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
40. Oseh Shalom Bimromav, He Who Makes Peace (Performed by Jonny Turgel, music by Stephen Levey, arranged by Yuval Havkin and Stephen Levey)
41. Remembering those who died (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
42. Keshehalev Bocheh, When the Heart Weeps (Performed by Levi Levin, music by Shmuel Elbaz, words by Yossi Gispan and Arlet Tzfadia, adapted and arranged by Trevor Horn)
43. I believe, therefore I am (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
44. When You Believe (Performed by Shimon Craimer, music and words by Stephen Schwartz, courtesy DWA Songs / Cherry Lane Music Publishing, arranged by Trevor Horn)
45. Israel, home of hope (Narration by Rabbi Sacks)
46. Hatikvah: The Hope (Performed by Lionel Rosenfeld and The Shabbaton Choir, words by Naftali Herz Imber, arranged by Trevor Horn)