Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Israeli Singer Agrees To Pull Song About Suicide After Affected Families Complain

After the recent deaths of both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, the world took to Instagram to post information about the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Other celebrities, like Ellen Degeneres, told the world via Twitter to help those who are struggling with depression.

The mood as these tragedies unfolded in America must have traversed to Israel, because one famous pop singer was asked by families affected by suicide to remove her song lyrics relating to this devastation. Yardena Arazi, who grew up in Haifa, is known for writing inspirational music about the land of Israel, but listeners requested that her newest song about love, “If He Goes”, be pulled from radio stations. “The words to the song, written by Aya Korem, discuss what the singer would do if her lover should leave her”, says The Jewish Post.

“If he goes – I will die/ I’ll jump from the balcony/ Or respond with violence/ I’ll stick my finger in an outlet/ And cut off all the rest.”

“Other verses suggest jumping in front of a train or bringing a toaster into the shower as potential methods, because “love is not a joking matter,” The Jewish Post adds.

The song is reminiscent of a Sylvia Plath poem, and listeners found it distasteful.

“What people don’t understand is that when a song like this is heard by young people who are at a crisis point… someone could, God forbid, say: ‘Well it’s not that bad, there’s even a song about it,” said Dr. Avshalom Aderet, chairman of the Path to Life NGO, who lost his son to suicide 20 years ago.

Anzari didn’t argue, and immediately asked radio stations to pull the song even though it was already released. “Their words touched my heart and I could not ignore what they were saying. I stand by this decision and hope that you honor it,” she wrote.

Bonnie is an intern at the Forward.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.