"Songs for March of the Living"
"Songs for March of the Living" is a compilation of songs related to the Holocaust and Israel, many of which were composed or performed by March of the Living participants from Canada.
The Habonin Youth Choir is based at Toronto's Congregation Habonim synagogue, a small synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors.
The album was released January 5, 1996
Song 12: Lay Down Your Arms
Words: LISA CATHERINE COHEN
Bridge: HARRY LEWIS
Music: DORON LEVINSON
Solo: TARA CHARENDOFF
Performed by: HABONIM YOUTH CHOIR
Lay Down Your Arms: 2015 March of the Living
2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
The March of the Living Children’s Choir and the Habonim Youth Choir, joined by other young people who love to sing and yearn for a peaceful world, recorded an exclusive version of the song.
This special version premiered in Auschwitz-Birkenau at March of the Living on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
On November 4th of that same year, 20 years had passed since the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzchak Rabin, was assassinated.
The melody to Lay Down Your Arms was written by an Israeli soldier, Doron Levinson, in memory of his fallen comrades.
The Hebrew verses are taken from Isaiah 2:4: “And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they teach their children war anymore.”
Isaiah's words, written over 2,500 years ago, have spoken to peace-lovers in every generation. Today, those words appear on an inscription at the United Nations Peace Park in New York City. The video includes images from the UN Isaiah inscription and the Great Isaiah Scroll, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls currently housed in the Israel Museum. It is the oldest manuscript of the Book of Isaiah, estimated to be 2,000 - 2300 years old.
Lay Down Your Arms: 1992 Recording/Video
Music: Doron B. Levinson
Lyrics: Lisa Catherine Cohen
Bridge: Harry Lewis
Conducted by Esther Ghan Firestone
Directed by Eli Rubenstein
