Jewish Home touts campaign single

We’re used to political parties coming up with campaign jingles, but Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party has taken things to a whole new level with its new campaign song—or “single,” as they call it in the music business.

The pop ditty is titled, “We Are Brothers,” and is performed by Eyal Cohen and Ophir Ben Shitrit, both of whom were finalists on the Israeli version of “The Voice,” a televised musical talent competition. (Ben Shitrit gained fame not only for her pipes, but also for being suspended from her religious girls high school for singing on television and in front of men.)

“We decided not to settle for just a jingle. We went for a song, which we thought was something nice and appropriate,” a Jewish Home campaign spokesman told The Times of Israel.

Cohen composed the music to go with the song’s Hebrew lyrics, which were penned by Jewish Home campaign manager Moshe Klughaft. Here is the English translation:

A simple love returns among us

The memory returns of whence we came

Here again, the laughter of children

We stop apologizing, we are brothers

 

The same revealed hidden link returns

The present remembers there is a past

Thousands of years the clock-hands meet

We stop apologizing, we are brothers

 

For we are all Dad’s children

He links together the rooms in our hearts

Jewish Home, the door opens

We are brothers          

 

The spark in our eyes returns

The prayer returns to our lips

A brother was born to me, we are so alike

We stop apologizing, we are brothers

 

Here are the road signs we have lost

The stitches we tore are reconnecting

And if you gave your life for me

How can I apologize? We are brothers

 

For we are all Dad’s children

He links together the rooms in our hearts

Jewish Home, the door opens

We are brothers

The poetry is evocative, simple, and infused with the vocabulary of prayer. Phrases like “rooms in our hearts” and “a simple love” are taken from Israeli folk music.

The recurring theme of “return” plays on the Jewish religious idea of teshuva, which means repentance, restoration and wholeness all at once. This idea is intertwined with a second theme, which is the party’s election campaign slogan: “We stop apologizing.” (Bennett initially introduced the slogan with a video in which he dresses up as a Tel Aviv hipster who can’t stop apologizing).

“We are not apologizing for anything,” said the campaign spokesman. “Not about the army, not about our love of Judaism or our love for Israel.”

Those familiar with the Jewish Home party’s campaign history will notice that the song’s emphasis on brotherhood echoes a former party slogan: “Bennett is a brother” (which Bennett’s satire-loving detractors immediately pounced upon.)

“We are not willing to see differences among us. Everyone who believes in the values of this party —and even those who don’t— are invited to join us,” said the spokesman about the brotherhood focus.

A video clip for the song is reportedly in the works. In the meantime, the audio track, with more than 34,200 YouTube hits in just three days, has already found a listening audience.