Israeli lyricist Ehud Manor dies

TEL AVIV, April 14 (JTA) — Twist the dial of a radio in Israel, and song after song written by Ehud Manor will waft over the airwaves. The prolific lyricist died Tuesday, but that’s not why his music is being played. The radio bursts with his work every day because so many of his songs are part of the Israeli musical canon. Now Israelis are grappling with the loss of a man whose songs for decades have tapped into the national psyche with tales of love, loss and belonging. “Ehud Manor knew how to sing the way Israel wanted to be sung to,” said Shimon Peres, one of several Cabinet members who attended Manor’s funeral on Wednesday, along with thousands of family members, friends and musicians. “He knew how to be sad when Israel felt sad, how to cheer when Israel felt it was time to cheer; he knew how to fall in love in an Israel in need of love, and he wrote with the simplicity of one who writes with pushed-up sleeves, without a bit of ostentation,” Peres said. Manor, considered Israel’s most prolific songwriter, died of a heart attack at age 64. He wrote some 1,200 songs and translated over 600 more into Hebrew. He was a cultural legend; Israelis across the political and social spectrum could relate to him. The Israel Prize-winner wrote of nostalgia for more innocent, more pastoral times. His songs often touched on the theme of loss. Many of the songs Israelis associate with times of national mourning, such as the days after terror attacks or on Remembrance Day, were written by Manor. Manor lost a brother in the War of Attrition, and wrote “My Younger Brother Yehuda” in his memory. One of Manor’s most famous songs was, “I Have No Other Country” — in Hebrew, “Ein Li Eretz Aheret.” It is sung by both the left and the right in Israel. Just as “Next Year” captured the triumphant joy of expectation in 1968, “I Have No Other Country” was emblematic of the bitter divisions of the early 1980s, when the Lebanon War tore Israelis apart. The composers in each case also underscored how a national consensus had collapsed: In 1968, Nurit Hersh was the sunny, pretty purveyor of bright children’s songs; Corinne Elal, who wrote the music for “I Have No Other Country,” was a protest singer, the grungy harbinger of a decade of disillusionment. That Manor could write for both women was a testament to his flexibility and universal appeal. Indeed, he noted with surprise how his protest song against the Lebanon War became a standard — a cry of defiant patriotism during the first Persian Gulf War, when radios broadcast Gali Atari’s somber rendition of the song to Israelis huddled in sealed rooms during Iraqi missile attacks. Thousands of Israelis had fled the country during the war but millions stayed, and “I Have No Other Country” summed up why. “Somehow, it was adopted by everyone as a song of pain,” Manor wrote in liner notes to a greatest hits anthology. Atari sang the song at Manor’s funeral, and the crowd sang with her. Manor’s funeral was held at the cemetery near his childhood home in the village of Binyamina, south of Haifa, where he grew up to Russian immigrant parents. The service was broadcast live on television and radio. Israeli musicians who had worked closely with Manor paid tribute to him and played some of his best-known songs. Mati Caspi, one of Israel’s top singers, who collaborated for years with Manor, was overcome with emotion as he gave a eulogy, calling Manor his “soul mate.” Singer Gidi Gov said Manor’s creative output was incredible. “There were just so many songs,” Gov told Israel Television. Manor’s songs are played on Israeli radio stations more than those of any other songwriter, according to ACUM, a non-profit organization for Israeli musicians and composers. When Manor won the Israel Prize in 1998, the selection committee wrote, “Ehud Manor represents contemporary reality. For the past 30 years, he has expressed our mood through the hundreds of songs he has written, together with the finest composers.” Since becoming a major figure in the Israeli music world in the late 1960s, Manor continued to work with the most popular Israeli singers, including a younger generation of artists, until the end of his prolific life. He also translated many musicals into Hebrew, including “Hair” and “Chicago.” He also translated Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “Twelfth Night,” hosted television and radio programs and wrote children’s books. Manor was celebrated as one of the greatest contributors to modern Israeli culture, and his death was front page news. He was eulogized by the Yediot Achronot newspaper as “a composer of dreams, a poet of hope.” Manor, who once said “my family is my muse,” is survived by his wife of 40 years, and three adult children. Yoav Ginai, a close friend of Manor’s, remembered him as “a teacher, an instructor, and a friend.” “His songs have entered our blood and will never leave,” Ginai said. (Washington Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas contributed to this report.)