Organize

Protest

Songs from IfNotNow Toronto's Sing for Ceasefire song-leading workshop

INN Toronto's Sing for Ceasefire

forest songs

alphabetized forest songs

floating

Protest Songs

Breathe breathe breathe in 
Breathe breathe out

Let it go, let it go, let it go

Trust in what's coming
Trust in your knowing
It's deeper and wider and holy


special thanks to Jess & Dan Pelberg Berlin for lighting the spark to find this song in me

Breathe

Little Song is a nigun (wordless melody) that is a soft, simple call and response / echo song that has often served as a way to sing out messages or add in words. This version was born when Ilana Lerman was driving to Washington DC to lead a songleader training at an IfNotNow action along with me and a powerful team of many songleaders, where she put the movement's messaging and demands to this tune. Since then, more of us have added words, the song growing every time. This melody is a powerful vehicle for sharing a message and grounding in our hearts. With these words, we hope the song can both be a gentle support to all of us in times of devastation and a strong loud voice in calling out for an end to the war.

With our prayers for healing this broken world and bridging the distance between us that can feel so cavernous, for grieving the terror of violence and oppression and a world that makes us believe they are necessary, for finding our way through together — we call for a ceasefire now: protect lives on all sides, end the siege on Gaza. 

How to use the song:

This melody can accelerate and pick up energy or slow down and get soft, is easy to learn, and is a call and response song, making it impactful for sharing a message. The last note of each line is drawn out to overlap with the response. When using in groups or at actions, the main words have been "Ceasefire Now," "Not in our name" and "No more genocide." You are welcome to use the words that feel right for the moment and add your own. Other possibilities include: Never again is now / Safety for all now / Let Gaza live / etc. 


Lyrics:

Ceasefire Now
to the tune of "Little Song" by Sol Weiss with added words from Ilana Lerman, Sol Weiss and many voices in the Ceasefire movement. 

Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)

Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)

Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)

Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)

Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)

Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)

*V’ ahavta (v'ahavta)
L’arecha (l'arecha)
K’mocha (k'mocha)
K’mocha (k'mocha)

Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)

*וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ
Hebrew translation "and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself" (Vayikra 19:18)

Sung by: Matt Goldfield, Molly Bajgot, Ilana Lerman, Helen Bennett & Sol Weiss
November 2023

Ceasefire Now (tune of Little Song by Sol Weiss, adapted by Ilana Lerman Oct 16, 2023)

Ancestor Sky People - Harmony Grisman

Be LIke A Bird - Earth Arts

Brothers In Bamako

We Don't Care

All Rebel Rockers

Hey World (Don't Give up Version)

A Little Bit of Riddim (feat. Cherine Anderson)

Selections from songs that we learned at the Shefa School during the 2015-2016 school year!

Kol Ha'Olam Kulo

Brich Rachamana בריך רחמנא

recorded by dove kent, talia cooper & margot seigle on a sweet fall night in a cozy brooklyn apartment. 

Aramaic: Babylonian Talmud 
English: Rabbi Shefa Gold, www.RabbiShefaGold.com

lyrics
בריך רחמנא 
מלכא דעלמא 
מריה דהאי פיתא 

Brikh raḥamana 
Malka d'alma 
Ma'arey d'hi (oh!) pita 

You are the source of 
Life for all that is 
And your blessing 
Flows through me

Oh lord prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
And with thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for you

Oh lord prepare me
To be a revolutionary
Bold and tender, tried and true
And with each other, 
We'll build another
World together
For me and you

(bonus verse written by iris brilliant, andrew meeker, sarah abbott, margot seigle & becky jones, with edits from Aly Halpert / summer 2015)

TISHREI - Brich Rachamana בריך רחמנא

Light is Returning - by Charlie Murphy, 1980s Pagan songwriter
Light is returning,
even though this is the darkest hour.
No one can hold back,
the dawn.

Light Is Returning

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

When the world is sick, can't no one be well
But i dreamt we was all beautiful and strong

from God Bless Our Dead Marines by Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band

recording produced by Shir Yaakov Feit. 

musicians: 
Elana Brody, Arielle Solomon, Rachel Cohn, Talya Goldberg, Tadea Klein, Yaeli Bronstein, Brooke Palatt, Craig Auerbacher, Margot Seigle, Brian Dolphin, Shir Yaakov Feit

Release Outtakes

When The World Is Sick

by Batya Levine with creative collaboration from Noam Lerman

recorded by Batya Levine & Noam Lerman
November 13, 2016

We Rise

By Request

Singing The Spirit Home

Translation: Human being, rise up! Rise up, for you have tremendous strength. You have wings of spirit, wings of noble eagles! Don't forget them or they will forget you. Seek them, and instantly they will manifest.

(thinking about this one for hanukkah, about growing in light, elevating, rising up)

Hebrew:
Ben Adam, aleh l'malah aleh (2x)
Ki koach oz l'cha, yesh b'cha kanfei ruach
kanfei nesharim abirim
al t'chakhesh bam!
Pen yechakhashu l'cha
drosh otam 
u'mat'z miyad

Human Being, Rise Up

Inspired by nomadic years, the wisdom of the body and nervous system, change, Somatic Reality: Bodily Experience and Emotional Truth by Stanley Kelemen, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess community, and the Judaism of my ancestors. Received to the tune of Avinu Malkeinu, a traditional Jewish High Holidays prayer.

Deep gratitude to my teachers, community and bright and well ancestors: Taya Shere, Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ibrahim Baba, my parents, Zaide, Grandpa, the Romanian women, Kohenet and so many more. Thank you.

Lyrics:
Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and listen to the wind
All comes together; all falls apart
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and draw yourself near
The rocks are your keepers
Tell them your stories
Now it is safe to be here

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and you will receive
Life wants to meet you where you are
Not where you think you should be

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and you will be shown
The love that was always lifting you up
You are never alone

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down child, slow down (x4)

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and listen to the wind
All comes together; all falls apart
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow Down / The Mother's Response (Preview)

Melody by IfNotNow member Arielle Korman and her father, Jerome Korman. This English translation is by Arielle. 
Rabbi Hillel, Pirkei Avot, Ethics of our Ancestors 1:14. 
?אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי? וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי? וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתַי

Im ein ani li, mi li? 
Uchshe’ani l’atzmi ma ani? 
V’im lo achshav, ematai?
Im lo achshav, ematai?

If I am not for me, who will be? 
If I am just for me, what does that make me? 
And if not now, then when? 
If not now, then when

Im Lo Achshav / If Not Now

This song was born out of John O'Donohue's poem, "For Someone Awakening to the Trauma of Her Past"; it has come through me in a season when the long buried wounds of past trauma have surfaced, inviting healing and renewal. "Only you know where the casket of pain is interred," John O'Donohue wrote. "You will have to scrape through all the layers of covering and according to your readiness, everything will open." 

May this song bring you healing, too.

Part One: 
As your tears fall over that wounded place,
may they wash away your fears and free your heart

Part Two:
I am coming home, I am coming home,
this body now, a meadow -- gentle, my love.

Awakening

Just for a Little While by Mother Tongue, author Raphael Agosto-Miranda

Adapted from the Leonard Cohen song, "Anthem". Sang as a call-and-response.

That’s How The Light Gets In

Yismechu, words from Shabbat liturgy, melody by Batya Levine sung at Let My People Sing! 2018.

(Sung & transliterated in Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew)
Yismechu b'malchuscha shoimrei shabbos v'korei oneg

Translation: They will rejoice in your Sovreignty/Interconnected-Reality, those who guard/honor/keep sacred shabbat and call it a true celebration.

LMPS 2018

Yismechu - Batya Levine - LMPS 2018

Complainer / 4th of July

Complainer

This song is called “Blessed Motion.” I learned the songs at Singing Alive and the songstress is Annie Zylstra. I am amazed by the song and the story of the song, which is as follows:

Blessed Motion is a 4-part acknowledgement of the nature of Life as an unpredictable, ever-changing movement toward itself. The melody came squatting on a rock next to a fast moving fork in the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California. Martin Prechtel said after surviving the Guatemala earthquake of 1976, during which he witnessed the ground beneath him rising up and swallowing people and villages whole, that solid ground is a myth believed by people who live on the earth rather than in it. This idea has stayed with me through the years and provided partial inspiration for this song. This is a big song! It travels through two dimensions, the first, a three or four part set of repeating lines, the second, a layered riff topped with a solo section. 

Thank you Annie. 

I hope you can hear the waves and motion in the voices of the track. It is genius. 

LYRICS

I believed in solid ground until I saw the earth in motion,

in the winds of steady change and in the ever-rolling ocean.

All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.

All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

All is moving, all is change, though I once believed that there

might somehow be something firm beneath my feet, but

All is motion, and all is well for solid ground is just a myth 

for those who never swim in it.

All is moving in blessed change, o the world we know

will come and go and everything will rearrange, so

be the ground beneath that sky,

tumbling round the by and by.

All is change, so am I.

lye lye lye, lye lye lye.

Blessed Motion Cover (Original by Annie Zylstra)

Stay Human Vol. II

This World is so Fucked up (But I Ain't Ever Giving up on It)

Original song by Annie Zylstra, arrangement by Lisa G. Littlebird.

Blessed Motion by Annie Zylstra - All Parts

Ancestor Song

recorded by Aly Halpert, Sol Weiss & Margot Seigle

I believed in solid ground until I saw the earth in motion,
in the winds of steady change and in the ever-rolling ocean.

All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

from Annie: 
Blessed Motion is a 4-part acknowledgement of the nature of Life as an unpredictable, ever-changing movement toward itself. The melody came squatting on a rock next to a fast moving fork in the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California. Martin Prechtel said after surviving the Guatemala earthquake of 1976, during which he witnessed the ground beneath him rising up and swallowing people and villages whole, that solid ground is a myth believed by people who live on the earth rather than in it. This idea has stayed with me through the years and provided partial inspiration for this song. This is a big song! It travels through two dimensions, the first, a three or four part set of repeating lines, the second, a layered riff topped with a solo section.

Blessed Motion - Annie Zylstra

This is a chant grounded in the resilience, courage, and hope of our Jewish ancestors, reminding us that when we fight for life and for justice, we are weaving ourselves with all justice-fighters who came before us. No fight is too big for our fierce and courageous hearts. 

As the story goes: In 1939, Nazis surrounded a group of Jews from Lublin, Poland, backed up against barbed wire and ordered them to sing to their own execution. One man began to sing: "Mir veln zey iberlebn, iberlebn, iberlebn” —"We will outlive them.” The song took hold among the entire people, who, as they awaited their deaths, began to dance. They danced with joy, with resilience, with a life that could not be destroyed by fascism, militarism, or genocide. The commander saw this resilience. He recognized their defiance. They continued, even as the SS troops charged at them. Most lost their lives that day. And some lived to tell this story. We are here. We will outlive them. We will join forces and voices with others to fight so we can all outlive them, together (thank you, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice!). 

Vocals: Avra Shapiro
Melody: Avra Shapiro
Arrangement: Avra Shapiro & Nadav Simon 
Bass: Matt Coglianese
Drums: Nadav Simon
Violin: Mallory Linehan
Production and Mixing: Nadav Simon
Mastering: Steve Marek 
Recorded and Mastered at Cybernetic Meadow
Art by Micah Bazant (poster can be bought here: https://www.micahbazant.com/buy-art/we-will-outlive-them).

Mir Veln Zey Iberlebn

https://fb.watch/3eSSURrJSb/

We will not underestimate 
our power any longer—
we know that together, we are strong.
Like drops of water shape the rocks 
as they rush down the falls,
we know that together,
we are strong.

שִׁירָה חֲדָשָׁה שִׁבְּ֒חוּ גְאוּלִים לְשִׁמְךָ עַל־שְׂפַת הַיָּם יַֽחַד כֻּלָּם הוֹדוּ
Shira chadasha shibchu ge'ulim l'shimcha al sfat hayam, 
yachad kulam hodu
"With newborn song, liberated people praised Your name on the lip of the sea. All were one in thanks." -Jewish Liturgy

May it be so.

Production by Eitan Kantor
Art by Sol Yael Weiss
Music and English Lyrics by Rena Branson
Hebrew Lyrics from Jewish Liturgy

Virtual Choir:

Aly Halpert
Anat Halevy Hochberg
Ari Yovel
R' Ariel Root Wolpe
Ariel Shapiro
Arielle Rivera Korman
Aviva Chernick
Batya Levine
Binya Kóatz
Caryn Shebowich
Chloe Telfeyan Glickman
Cole Krawitz
Dori Midnight
Eitan Kantor
Gedalia Penner
Grace Gleason
Itai Gal
JB Levine
Pastor John Bergen
C' Jessi Roemer
K' Keshira haLev Fife
Margot Seigle
Marigo Farr
Mariyama Scott
Marques Hollie
May Ye
Molly Bajgot
R' Mónica Gomery
Nissa Mai Rose
Nnedinma Umeadi
R' Noam Lerman
Patrece Dixon
Rachel Chang
Rebecca Peretz-Lange
Rebekka Goldsmith
Reem Rosenhaj
Reuben Shachar Rose
Riv Ranney Shapiro
Rowan K. Ching
Sadie Gold-Shapiro
Shana Salzberg
Sol Yael Weiss
Yaara Perczek
Yasha Shapiro
Zuriel Biran

Our Power (Video Version)

Fire of Creation

Song Share

Deep Down Inside of Me - Adele Getty

Ancestors

The p.i.n.e. project’s mission is to build healthy communities deeply connected to the natural environment.
To achieve this we deliver programs focused on building relationships between self, others, and the environment. Using music, drama, storytelling, naturalist studies, stewardship, survival skills, outdoor adventures, intergenerational learning, games, and play we weave a “culture of nature connection”. This empowers our mantra: be more, need less.

And yes, WE LOVE SONGS!!!

That’s How The Light Gets In

thepineproject