Yerushalaim Shel Zahav,Moscow Male Jewish Cappella,Alexander Tsaliuk

                         

"Jerusalem of Gold" (Hebrew: ירושלים של זהב‎, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav) is an extremely popular Israeli song written by Naomi Shemer in 1967. It is also the unofficial national anthem of Israel, often contrasted with the secular Hatikva. The original song described the Jewish people's 2,000-year longing to return to Jerusalem; Shemer added a final verse after the Six-Day War to celebrate Jerusalem's re-unification, after 19 years of Jordanian control.

Naomi Shemer wrote the original song for the Israeli Song Festival (it was Teddy Kollek), held on 15 May 1967, the night after Israel's nineteenth Independence Day. She chose the then-unknown Shuli Nathan to sing the song and not in competition but had been commissioned by the Mayor, 

Some of the song's melody is based on a Basque lullaby, Pello Joxepe (Pello is a typical basque name, but it can also mean Foolish Joseph), composed by Juan Francisco Petriarena 'Xenpelar' (1835–1869). Shemer heard a rendition by singer/songwriter Paco Ibáñez, who visited Israel in 1962 and performed the song to a group that included Shemer and Nehama Hendel. She later acknowledged hearing Hendel perform Pello Joxepe in the mid-1960s, and that she had unconsciously based some of the melody on the lullaby. Shemer felt very bad when she found that it was similar toPello Joxepe, but when Ibáñez was asked how he felt about the issue, he replied he was "glad it helped in some way", and that he was neither angry nor did he perceive it as plagiarism.

At that time, the Old City was still controlled by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and under its sovereignty rule. Jewshad been banned from the Old City and the rest of Jerusalem east of it, losing their homes and possessions and becoming refugees. All Jews were barred from either returning or entering the areas under Jordanian control, and many holy sites were desecrated and damaged during that period. Only three weeks after the song was published, the Six-Day War broke out, and the song became a morale-boosting battle cry of the Israel Defense Forces. Shemer herself sang it for the troops before the war and the festival, making them among the first in the world to hear it.

On 7 June, the IDF wrested eastern Jerusalem and the Old City from the Jordanians. When Shemer heard the paratroopers singing "Jerusalem of Gold" at the Western Wall, she wrote the final verse, countering the phrases of lamentation in the second verse. The line about shofars sounding from the Temple Mount is a reference to an event that actually took place on that day.

Many of the lyrics refer to traditional Jewish poetry and themes, particularly dealing with exile and longing for Jerusalem. "Jerusalem of Gold" is a reference to a special piece of jewelry mentioned in a famous Talmudic legend about Rabbi Akiva; "To all your songs, I am a lyre" is a reference "Zion ha-lo Tish'ali", one of the "Songs to Zion" by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi: "I cry out like the jackals when I think of their grief; but, dreaming of the end of their captivity, I am like a harp for your songs.

The poem is woven with mournful Biblical references to the destruction of Jerusalem and subsequent exile of the Jewish people. "The city that sits alone" is from the first verse of the Book of Lamentations; the first word after the first chorus, איכה (the lament "How?") is its Hebrew name. "If I forget thee Jerusalem" is a quote fromPsalm 137, i.e. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion." This contrasts with the joyous return from exile in the fourth verse.