Yip did not know what the future held for the Jewish people when he wrote this song. It is this feeling of hope within the song that we can all relate to and it is hope that helped the Jewish people through the Holocaust. The song is about hope, that the bad times will one day be over. Their freedoms were being taken away, their identity being dragged through the dirt, and many of them were feeling isolated.

The song was first published in 1939, at a time when the Jews in Europe were coming under increased hostility. If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blueĪnd wake up where the clouds are far behind me. There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby. Many of us can relate to the song we have all experienced troubles in our lives, but it is when you apply this song to the Jewish people and the Holocaust that the song takes on a whole new meaning. Among other things they won an Oscar in 1940 for “Best Music, Original Song” for “The Wizard of Oz” and the song was voted the number one song of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. Together they put together a song that has won awards and garnered global fame. His real name was Isidore Hochberg, and he grew up in a Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox Jewish home in New York. The music was written by Harold Arlen, a Jew whose family immigrated from Lithuania.

The lyrics of the song were written by Yip Harbug, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Whether you know it from watching Judy Garland as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, or the soothing ukulele of Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole, you no doubt know the song. The song “Over the Rainbow” is one of the most well known songs in the world.

Over the rainbow lyrics