Shema - Caryn Shebowich
Shema yisrael Adonai eloheinu Adonai echad
Listen my people, 
Our voices and bodies are one
Lifting voices together
We know that our work's just begun

Photo by Jess Benjamin, taken at Let My People Sing! Summer Retreat 2023

Shema (Hebrew & English)- Caryn Shebowich

Aish Tamid tune by Shefa Gold from Leviticus 6:6
Which Side Are You On by Florence Reece coming out of 1930s mine workers struggle in Kentucky
Mash Up by Ilana Lerman

Recorded at Boston Passover Action Prep Meeting 4/17/16

lyrics:
Aish tamid tukad al hamizbayach lo tichbeh

Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

Aish Tamid + Which Side Are You On

tune by Rabbi Menachem Creditor from Psalm 89:3

Recorded at Boston Passover Action Prep Meeting 4/17/16

lyrics:
Olam chesed yibaneh

We will build this world from love

Olam Chesed

by Charlie Murphy

Recorded at Boston Passover Action Prep Meeting 4/17/16

lyrics: 
Light is returning
Even though this is the darkest hour
No one can hold back the dawn


Light Is Returning

Havdallah

Aish Tamid - melody by Shefa Gold (Remix with Which Side are you On)
Which side are you on - by Florence Reece- activist and organizer, a poet and songwriter- in 1931.  It was intended specifically as a song to be sung by the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky.  It was revived during the Civil Rights movement, with verses changed and updated to fit the times. 

Aish tamid tukad al hamizbayach; lo tichbeh
Fire always shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out. (Leviticus 6:6)

Which Side are you On? Which Side are you On my people?
Recorded by IfNotNow Boston Summer 2016

Aish Tamid

This song was written/ inspired by a team of cross movement leaders who are in an interconnected network building for a just world and social transformation brought together by Momentum. 

We're gonna rise up, rise up till it's won.
When the people rise up, the powers come down.
They tried to stop us, but we keep coming back.

We're Gonna Rise Up Momentum Song

Melody by IfNotNow member Arielle Korman. 

Boz del puevlo, boz del sielo.
The voice of the people is the voice of the heavens.
-- Judeo-Spanish(Ladino) Proverb

Found in Devin Naar's book Jewish Salonica.

Boz del Puevlo / The voice of the people

Farr Nigun

Galeh

Sosne Nign by Jonah Meadows Adels z''l (recorded by Hebrew College)

Nigun Esh - Mizmor Ledavid (Psalm 29)

IfNotNow is a movement led by young Jews to transform our American Jewish community’s support for the occupation into a call for freedom and dignity for all. Learn more about the songs we sing in our movement here: http://bit.ly/2mIZUks
>on singing songs from other movements of today and from the past:
We are lucky to have the songs of our own Jewish traditions -- they are for us to sing.  Some of us have ancestors who have been deeply involved in movements across the world for social change for generations, both as those directly affected and as allies.  We are also singing their songs. 
And.
We recognize that this can easily turn into cultural appropropriation, particularly when we do not have direct links. So, before we sing a song we have a practice of honoring where it comes from: we share the movement, the struggle, or the people who birthed this music. Singing these songs is one way of acknowledging that we’re in a long line of movements for justice. 
We continue to create new movement songs. We write new lyrics. We get inspired by old text- Jewish and non-Jewish.  We do not simply translate movement songs into Hebrew in order to connect with them. One possibility instead is to incorporate Jewish text with similar themes and vision. 
From the beginning, IfNotNow leaders have been building relationships with leaders from Cosecha, BlackLivesMatter, The Dream Defenders, and other movements through the Momentum Community where we have been creating and sharing our songs with each other. Diversity keeps our movements strong and interconnected. We understand this as an ecological system of access, ancestries, struggles and strategies for resistance. Song is part of the way we arrive in interdependent relationship. We are building a culture that is accountable, compassionate -- and vibrant as all hell. Please honor the history of each song -- learn it, share it. 
We will lift each other up.

Light Is Returning

IfNotNow

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