(Written after Michael Graff passed away on August 11, 2021)
Just a few days ago you were lying in your hospital bed in Hadassah Hospital awaiting treatment after being transferred from Shaare Zedek, and despite your great handicaps we managed to have a good light-hearted conversation, and I told you that I planned to come to visit you on Thursday (August 12) and bring you the sugar-free cake and Coca-Cola bottle you asked for. So it was a real and terrible shock the following day when I came home to hear from your dear wife Irene the tragic news that you had left us and left this cruel world after months of physical suffering for your pain-racked body which could no longer withstand the unending blows on the inhospitable hospital beds, and so you left us, your family and friends, to grieve.
Even your funeral in Jerusalem the next day was in many ways a painfully hurried and harried affair because it had to be hastily arranged and executed in the midst of a host of other funerals seemingly all taking place at the same time on Har Hamenuchot as a result of the Corona pandemic and the endless heat. So much so, that to our great regret there was no time as is customary for close family and friends to bid you words of appreciation and farewell from the podium in front of the stretcher bearing your body. At least your son was able to recite Kaddish before they hurried us away with your body to a vast new underground section where they placed your body in a compartment in the wall, and after the Kehilat Yerushalayim Hevra Kadisha Rabbi in charge recited the customary psalms and blessings he and his assistants went off leaving the few of us, your wife and son, granddaughter and husband, myself and David Cochav, and Mr. Samet and his workers from the music store, to say a few words in your memory.
First of all, your son made a very moving speech of farewell and appreciation for all you did and achieved during your lifetime, and then I stood close to your grave in the wall and said a few words about your great achievements as a songwriter and illustrated this by singing one of your finest songs called “Way of Life” which I recorded for you some years ago and which clearly reflects both your love and admiration for Israel and your clear understanding of what human life is all about. Your wonderful song resounded throughout the huge cavern-like hall for all the hundreds of your fellow Jews buried in the walls to hear. Then we all left to resume our everyday lives and to be able to comfort your mourning wife and family in the coming week of mourning.
Here are the words of your wonderful song “Way of Life,” which I sang for you at your funeral:
WAY OF LIFE
Words and music by Michael Graff
Beneath the sun where sands lay burningThere are green fields that once were dry,Here a life fulfills a yearningTo live and love, to laugh and cry.No other life can feed the fireThat burns inside me through the yearsSomeday to fill my heart’s desireDespite much sorrow, many tears.Just like a swallow in a stormBlown by winds, wracked with painTrying to rise toward the sunHigh above the blinding rain…
A cry of joy, a cry of sorrowTwo sounds that one hears every day,How much time is left to borrow?No other life, no other way.
(Copyright, Michael Graff, Jerusalem, 2011. This is the link for the original recording)
Another outstanding song of yours on which we collaborated is “Visit of the Dove,” which you wrote shortly after the historic trip to Israel of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1977 and which made a big impact on all who heard it, including President Sadat’s wife, Jehan. (Here is the link to the impressive video)
And, of course I must mention your amazing song tribute to Africa called African Sun, performed by Chanan Elias and his band and which brings back memories of your youth in South Africa. (And here is the link to the beautiful Yaacov Goldman video)
But perhaps the best known of your songs is “The Jazz Band Up In Heaven” which you wrote in tribute to the all-time Jazz Greats and which was published by Gallo Record Company in South Africa.(Here is the link to the beautiful video sung by Israel’s leading jazz singer Elana Watson)
Yes, dear Mike, you left us all, your dear wife, brother, son and grandchildren, and your friends, with tears in our eyes and hearts over our loss of you.
At the same time, we all realize that you left us and our world with a wonderful treasury of memorable songs that will live on forever and inspire this and future generations with their love of life, of Israel, and humanity.
Dear Mike, we shall never forget you, and you will continue to inspire us and to brighten our lives for as long as we live.
May your memory be a blessing!