Jerusalem of Gold

The name of this beautiful song is "Jerusalem of Gold." English lyrics are below. It was written shortly after the 1967 War. We celebrate that victory beginning tomorrow. Click here for information about our next tour to Israel.

JERUSALEM OF GOLD
by Naomi Shemer

This version appears, inter alia, in Landmarks:  Resource material, poetry, songs, games and activities, edited by Avi Tsur, and published by the Israeli Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, in 1998 in Jerusalem:  103.

But when I come to count your praises
And sing Hallel to you
With pretty rhymes I dare not crown you
As other poets do,
Upon my lips is always burning
Your name, so dear, so old:
If I forget Yerushalaim
Of bronze and light and gold ...

Yerushalaim all of gold
Yerushalaim, bronze and light
Within my heart I shall treasure
Your song and sight.

Back to the wells and to the fountains
Within the ancient walls
The sound of horn from Temple's mountain
Again so loudly calls,
From rocky caves, this very morning
A thousand suns will glow
And we shall go down to the Jordan
By way of Jericho.

Yerushalaim all of gold
Yerushalaim, bronze and light
Within my heart I shall treasure
Your song and sight.