Lift Up A Glass

Look at the fruit salad.

Some fruits are sour, and some fruits sweet.

Some are more juicy than, some harder to eat. 

Some are more smooth, some, rougher-skinned treats.

Each fruit brings its own taste and colors and texture 

And when all mixed together, they create something new

Far more than just each fruit alone.

So too with us. We’ve made up of all kinds;

Some work the land. Some look to heaven for signs.

Some of us are visionaries. Some, more practical types.

We come in all sizes, all shapes, and all stripes.

Some set out on new paths. Some settle rather than roam 

And each brings their own language, customs, and beliefs from home.

We are an ingathering kibbutz (gathering) of peoples in a multicultural nation, 

An immense, breathing, and living creation 

Renewing itself with so much innovation.

We lift up a glass to all who returned to our land

To the ingathering of exiles

To immigration, to integration both present and past, 

We lift up our glass.

Avner Goren
(Translated by llana Kurshan)