THE LIONESS ROARS

Geula Cohen’s audacity brings to mind a great Jewish female military leader of the past – the prophetess and judge Deborah. Cohen inspired an important line in a biblical musical I co-authored, with Yael Valier, for Raise Your Spirits Theatre.

In 2010, in Israel, we performed (in English, and in 2019 in Hebrew) the show JUDGE! Song of Deborah, with music by Mitch Clyman. In the song “Come with me,” that the Israelite General Barak sings to Deborah, in which he asks her to go with him to lead the battle against the evil General Sisera, I wrote these lyrics:

Barak: Their alliances are wicked It cannot be ignored

Sisera is ferocious – Deborah: You too can learn to roar!

This last line was inspired by the debate in the Knesset after prime minister Menahem Begin came back from negotiations with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and US president Jimmy Carter at Camp David, in 1978, about the Sinai desert, and reported that, when he said to Sadat that Yamit should remain in Israeli hands, Sadat “roared like a lion.” MK Geula Cohen shouted from the plenary, “You, too, could have roared.” I remember hearing this fiery Knesset debate live on the radio.

I told Geula over the phone how that line of hers had inspired the lyric in our song about Deborah and Barak, and invited her to our show. She was not feeling well enough to come, but the sentiment lives on – that Am Yisrael needs to know when to keep silent, and when to “roar like a lion.” – T.K.G.