Shiri Maimon offers potent cover of Israeli classic, ‘Bashana Haba’a’

It’s been six months since Israel’s first coronavirus closure, when a group of Jerusalem neighbors took to their balconies to sing “Bashana Haba’a” (Next Year), a classic Israeli song of hope amid crisis.

This time, with the Jewish New Year just days away and a countrywide closure about to start, singer Shiri Maimon offered another version of the Ehud Manor classic, and it’s a potent listen.

Yossi Mor arranged and played the piano for Maimon’s moving, heartfelt rendition of this song that speaks of everyday life and simple pleasures.

Maimon, a pop singer and reality music show judge, posted the recording on her Facebook page, writing the following:

The last Hebrew year was not a good year (to say the least).

We got to know words like quarantine, pandemic and economic crisis. The rift in Israeli society has deepened, the discourse has become more violent than ever and the fear of the unknown is gnawing at us all.

But even in the midst of this bad situation, it is worth trying to seek the good — we are going through a lesson that will be remembered for generations.

And what it takes to open the next Hebrew year properly is hope.

In the last few days, I have found myself humming a song that makes me feel good, and I felt it could reach you too.

You will see
You will see
How good it will be
Next year

The words to the 1970 song were written by lyricist Ehud Manor with music composed by Nurit Hirsch. At the time, Manor didn’t tell Hirsch that he had written the song for his younger brother, Yehuda Viner, who was killed in 1968 in battle.

Hirsch ended up composing an upbeat melody for the now classic song that marks the new year.