"A Walk to Caesarea" (Hebrew: הליכה לקיסריה, Halikha LeKeisarya), also commonly known by the opening words "Eli, Eli" (Hebrew: אֵלִי, אֵלִי, "My God, My God") in the song version, is a poem in Hebrew written in 1942 by Hungarian Jewish WWII resistance fighter Hannah Szenes,[1] which Israeli composer David Zehavi set to music in 1945.
[2] Szenes wrote the poem while residing in kibbutz Sdot Yam which is located a short distance along the Mediterranean coast from the ancient port town of Caesarea.
The song is considered one of Israel's unofficial anthems,[2] and is the most-commonly played song on Yom HaShoah (the Holocaust Remembrance Day) in Israel.
[3] The following is an English translation of the song version:[4] My God, my God, may it never end – the sand and the sea, the rustle of the water, the lightning of the sky, the prayer of man.
In Hebrew, the poem reads: אלי, אלי, שלא יגמר לעולם החול והים רשרוש של המים ברק השמים תפילת האדם