A classic heartbreak song is reborn: The "Winter of '73" becomes "October '23"

Three Israeli teachers take a classic song, rewrite it, and thank their students who have gone to war for teaching *them* what citizenship really is

Before you watch the video immediately below, please wait. Read what’s further down, watch the other videos, and then you’ll really be able to appreciate what this is. It’s a song sung by three teachers to their high school students, now graduated and serving as soldiers, with thanks for their willingness to sacrifice everything for their country.

But … we can’t really appreciate this song without knowing the song on which it is based, and the history of that song, which we’ve written about earlier, here and here.

So let’s skip down a bit, first, to the video with the English words and grey background, just below.

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The song below, “The winter of ‘73,” is one of Israel’s great classics. The song was first performed on Independence Day of 1994, and speaks in the voice of the children who were conceived by their broken-hearted parents in the winter of 1973, in the months immediately following the Yom Kippur War. To this day, the song stirs the hearts of Israelis everywhere.

This next clip is the only version that I could find with English subtitles. I would have translated parts of it slightly differently, but it’s “good enough for jazz.” With one exception: the opening “explanation” says that the song was sung by soldiers who were born in the winter of 1973, when the song specifically claims to be the voice of those who were conceived in 1973. There’s a big difference, and in this song it matters.

But the rest of video more or less works, so let’s start with that.

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The song was first performed by the musical troupe of the IDF’s Education Corps, in April 1994. Here, so you can follow along with the next clips, are the words to the song and a translation:¹

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Here’s a video of the very first time the song was ever performed, the very moment it took the citizens of Israel by storm, and broke their hearts all over again:

A few last thoughts about that first performance in 1994. By April 1994, when the song was introduced, Israel had already signed a peace treaty with Egypt. Negotiations with Jordan were under way, and peace with Jordan would come at the end of 1994. “You promised peace, an olive tree … you promised to keep your promises.”

In many respects, Israel had done that. (The soldier interviewed in the clip immediately above acknowledges that at 5:11, with profound gratitude.) By the time the song appeared, Israel was essentially no longer at war with the countries that had attacked in October 1973. Egypt had signed a peace treaty, as we’ve mentioned. Jordan was about to. Syria was no longer a viable threat. It was over … or at least so it seemed.

Except that around here, it’s never over, as we have learned with agonizing clarity since October 7. Those four young soldiers obviously couldn’t have known that a year and a half after their performance, Yitzchak Rabin would be murdered. There was peace on the outside, but not inside. Nor could they have known that three years after Rabin’s death, Israel would be embroiled in the Second Intifada for four bloody years. Or that twenty five years after they sang, Iran would be threatening to wipe out the Jewish state. Or that two months ago, the worst of Europe could come to Israel, that pogroms of Europe would not have been left behind.

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Seventeen years after that first performance, in April 2011 (on Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers), the four original performers got together to perform the song again; by then, they were about forty years old. But you can still recognize their faces, and their voices hadn’t changed much.

What was different, was that by then, the song had become a kind of anthem in Israel. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing (it’s only six minutes), then at least take a glance at these moments:

00:53-00:56—Watch the father in the audience, a tear on his face, with his child in his lap

01:46-01:56—Look at the faces of the people

2:55-3:06—Notice how by now, everyone knows the words

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Now we can return to the video at the very top of this post, the song just RE-written in these past weeks to honor the soldiers now serving.

Who are the teachers in the video?

They are Mia Shilon, Barak Gonen and Doron Ben-Ami. The three teachers started a music group during COVID called Morat Ruach [מורת רוח / “Bitter Spirit”]. They became known for their satirical videos about the education system. This time, though, satire was the farthest thing from their minds, though implicit in their song is a biting critique of Israel’s political leadership, a critique shared by almost everyone.

As you listen to the song, watch for images that repeat from the original, beyond the obviously identical melody.

• True, there’s no dove,

• Nor is there an olive branch

But …

There is still hope, there is still courage, there is still a deep belief in the country, even in the importance of keeping promises.

Israel is beginning to call this young generation of fighters דור הנצחון, the “generation of victory.”

It’s not hard to see why.

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If you’re just joining us, Israel from the Inside typically posts a written column on Mondays and a podcast on Wednesdays. That is obviously irrelevant for the time being.

We’ve delayed all the podcasts that were ready to go, because the people whose stories they tell deserve to tell them when we all have the bandwidth to hear. Hopefully, that will return some day.

For the next three weeks, beginning Sunday, December 17th, we will be posting a bit less, as people in the United States will be on vacation, traveling and the like, and here in Israel, as some reservists are being rotated out of units, those of us who could not leave while our kids were/are at the front, will be using the time to visit kids abroad.

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1. Translation and transliteration from http://www.hebrewsongs.com/?song=chorefshivimveshalosh, though I’ve modified the translation in places. The Hebrew words are taken from https://mshironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&wrkid=1427&prfid=2570&song_title=7b8e6