Hands up
Head low
From the shtetl
To the show
Am Yisrael high
We don't break, we multiply
From the dust to the sky
Say it loud, never die
Am Yisrael high
Every exile, every try
All the pain in my eye
Turns to flame when I cry
(Am Yisrael high)
Pita crumbs on my shirt
Baba yelling, "Do the work"
Ancestors in my ear
Every blessing, every hurt
Kiddush cup in my fist
Turn the trauma to a twist
We were numbers on a list
Now we're louder than the mist
Little boy, Hebrew school
Didn't fit, didn't follow rules
Now I lace up in the booth
Spitting chapters of the truth
From the ghetto to the court
To the lab, to the port
We survive, we contort
Still we rise, long report
They tried to write our ending
Ink dried, we're still ascending
Hear that name they kept defending
Heart drums, history bending
Am Yisrael high
We don't break, we multiply
From the dust to the sky
Say it loud, never die
Am Yisrael high
Every exile, every try
All the pain in my eye
Turns to flame when I cry
(Am Yisrael high)
Grandma with the faded arm
Told me, "Boy, you're every star"
Every scar another psalm
Every loss another scar
Shuk noise, Tel Aviv
Brooklyn block, long sleeves
Same soul, different streets
Same fire in the teeth
I got chutzpah in my walk
Every blessing in my talk
All the names under stone
Marching with me when I rock
From the prayers in the camp
To the kid with the lamp
We the spark in the dark
We the stamp they can't stamp
They tried to write our ending
Ink dried, we're still ascending
Hear that name they kept defending
Heart drums, history bending
Am Yisrael high
We don't break, we multiply
From the dust to the sky
Say it loud, never die
Am Yisrael high
Every exile, every try
All the pain in my eye
Turns to flame when I cry
(Am Yisrael high)
From the Red Sea road
To the barcode globe
We carry that code
In the marrow, in the mode
In the whisper, in the yell
In the heaven, in the hell
You can push, you can pry
Still the answer: we're alive
Am Yisrael high
We don't break, we multiply
From the dust to the sky
Say it loud, never die
Am Yisrael high
Every exile, every try
All the pain in my eye
Turns to flame when I cry
(Am Yisrael high)