81434: A Song Redeems a Number
A Holocaust survivor’s tattoo inspires a moving song
Today- in the midst of ongoing war, international upheaval, and 59 of our people still held captive- we honor Holocaust Remembrance Day.
We do so each year just days after Passover, a holiday that holds the most essential message of our tradition: that humans are in their essence free, are meant to be free, and have the freedom to completely transform.
This message comes across loud and clear in this song, called in Hebrew "Shir Mispar" ("The Number Song") because of the number on the arm of Holocaust survivor Mordechai Chechanover, whom the songs' writers and performers met as part of the project Paskol Shlishi* ("Third Soundtrack"). I've chosen to call the song simply by Mordechai's number - 81434- partly because the Hebrew title can also be read as "A Song Tells" - a meaningful play on words that can't work in English - and also because I think the song's focus on the number is so powerful-- redeeming it by looking at it, without turning away, and by recognizing its meaning without giving into its sadness.
As the Israeli digital magazine "Srugim" wrote, this song "...recalls a Jewish melody with an old European flavor holding a lot of sadness mixed with hopeless optimism - just like the story of Mordechai Chechanover."
*The Paskol Shlishi project brought together major Israeli musicians with Holocaust survivors to inspire an album of original songs about the Shoah. Below is a short clip the project created about the making of this song that is well worth taking the time view in order to get a sense of Mordechai, the song’s subject.
The translation is mine.