Jewish USA
by Laivy Hart
In honor of the 250th Birthday of the United States, the Malchus Shel Chesed.
Newport harbor, Touro walls
Seixas writes, Washington calls
Charleston streets, Savannah air
Early minyans, whispered prayer
Haym Salomon, Revolution
New-world dream, Constitution
Ports were open, roads were wide
Torah packed for the other side
[Verse 1]
Ellis Island, steerage lines
Tenement rooms and Yiddish signs
Orchard pushcarts, factory floors
Shabbos clocks and bolted doors
Freedom called, but freedom cost
Friday jobs and paychecks lost
Kosher butcher, mikvah door
Little shuls above the store
Yiddish papers, Hebrew schools
New-world streets and old-world rules
Rent was steep, the stairways thin
Still the next day would begin
[Chorus -
Two hundred fifty years
Look what grew here year by year
From harbor lights
To city heights
A thousand roads
A thousand lives
And still
We’re here
[Instrumental Hook - piano riff, bright synth line, guitar punctuation]
[Verse 2]
Irving Berlin, Gershwin scores
Broadway lights and theater doors
Einstein thinking, Princeton halls
Jonas Salk and hospital walls
Levi Strauss and garment trades
Storefront signs and window shades
Greenberg swinging, Koufax heat
Yom Kippur and empty seats
Hollywood screens, radio sound
Jewish names all over town
Doctors, lawyers, writers, plays
Building lives in different ways
[Chorus
Two hundred fifty years
Look what grew here year by year
From harbor lights
To city heights
A thousand roads
A thousand lives
And still
We’re here
[Verse 3]
Soldiers serving, victory trains
Europe shattered, names in flames
Refugee ships, a suitcase tied
Family pictures tucked inside
Israel rising, bonds were sold
Soviet rallies in the cold
Signs held high beneath the sky
Let my people go, the cry
Brooklyn, Queens and Jersey lanes
Boro Park and Monsey trains
Camps and schools and kosher aisles
Suburban shuls for twenty miles
[Verse 4]
Flatbush nights and Five Towns days
Teaneck traffic, Passaic ways
Deal and Boca, Lakewood streets
Miami winters, wedding seats
Wall Street calls and startup plans
Hatzalah racing, helping hands
Daf on trains and red-eye flights
Shabbos tables, Friday nights
WhatsApp buzzing, weddings packed
Suitcase seforim neatly stacked
Different accents, different views
One enormous world of Jews
[Chorus]
Two hundred fifty years
Look what grew here year by year
From harbor lights
To city heights
A thousand roads
A thousand lives
And still
We’re here
[Final Section]
But underneath the rush
And underneath the fame
Beneath the lights
And beneath the names
The ballparks
The boardrooms
The books
The acclaim
There was always something deeper
Than the American dream
A Torah carried from Sinai
Across the sea
Through every mile
From father to son
From mother to child
From rebbe to talmid
From generation to generation
Would the Torah cross the ocean?
Would the chain remain unbroken?
Would an American child
Open a Gemara
And hear
The voice of Sinai?
Torah Vodaath
Chaim Berlin
Mir and Telz
Rebuilt again
Bais Yaakov
Class by class
Torah Umesorah
Spreading fast
Agudah standing
Vaad Hatzalah
Rav Moshe’s teshuvos
Rav Aharon’s fire
Lakewood rising
Shtenders full
Torah growing
School by school
ArtScroll pages
Daf Yomi trains
A Torah nation
Built again
From Sinai
To Brooklyn
From Brooklyn
To Lakewood
From Lakewood
To every city
The promise
Carried through
Two hundred fifty years
A thousand roads
One Torah
[Outro - huge sustained landing, strong final vocal, no fade]
Still learning
Still building
Still here
The Torah did not merely survive America
It grew here
It grew here
Every soul has a song
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